


SCHOLAM DESERTO

by Greenleaf66



Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-17
Updated: 2017-08-14
Packaged: 2018-11-15 07:23:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 43,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11226105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Greenleaf66/pseuds/Greenleaf66
Summary: Post Season 2 Episode 18, or what happens next?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [EveningRose](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EveningRose/gifts), [MasterBruin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MasterBruin/gifts).



> Well, I’d been working on a very long story, before the return of the last five episodes and was almost ready to post, then saw the season finale. So delighted by it, that I put aside the one I was working on and out came this. Could not get out of my head Lucifer’s quizzical little smile as he looks up at the sky with his new wings. Set my mind just spinning, and this is the result. It was really fun to write, so I hope you like it (comments welcome). Just my take on what could happen after he wakes up in the desert. See end for more notes. 
> 
> DISCLAIMER: All these characters belong to their creators!

It was hot, excruciatingly hot in point of fact.

Lucifer willed his eyes to open and immediately regretted it. The light was blinding. Obviously not Hell. There is no sunlight in Hell. Ever.

Good. Still on the earth then. 

His skin hurt, his feet hurt. And his head hurt, a lot. He raised his left hand to just above that ear and winced with the sting of it. There was a large and very sore lump behind and slightly above his left ear. Whoever had delivered the blow could not have been human, that was evident. And not too many of the celestials had the power to do it either.

Caught me by surprise, you bugger. I’ll remember that for later. He glowered.

He realized he was barefoot and shirtless, though it seemed he was still wearing his trousers. He tried sitting up and noted that every part of him was sore. Looking down at his chest he saw how red the skin was, there was blistering, a lot of blistering, and some nasty wet patches where the blisters had ruptured and the sting was sizzling. 

How bloody long have I been out here?

He began a careful inventory, despite the soreness nearly everywhere, it seemed nothing was broken or any injury more than superficial. He sat up and immediately felt an old familiar weight on his upper torso, one that he had not felt in over six years. In utter disbelief as he stood, he felt the weight of the pair of snow white wings that protruded from his back. 

Shielding his eyes from the sun he looked skywards, a whispered “dad?” on his cracked and dry lips. 

No answer, of course.

Tentatively, he tried to flap the wings only to feel a searing pain through his upper back and shoulders. The tingling of the reconnected nerves radiated from just above his shoulder blades to the very tips of both wings, but it was the muscles beneath that he hadn’t used in six years that screamed their objection. It seemed this was going to take a bit of practice.

I don’t know why you chose now to give them back, he thought skyward, but thank you for this. It would make getting back to LA a lot easier.

Now all he had to do was figure out where he was getting back from.

The sun was slightly off zenith, but it was impossible to tell if it was late morning or early afternoon or what direction the earth was moving in. He would simply have to let some time pass and see which way the sun moved in the sky.

It dawned on him that he felt like he was boiling and realized the black trousers of his suit were absorbing the killing rays from above. In a second he stepped out of them, the sand seeming almost to melt the soles of his feet, but he immediately felt better in just his silk boxers.

At least I won’t boil to death.

He realized that despite being an immortal, he was in real trouble. He had no shoes, no shirt, no jacket, nothing in the pockets of his trousers but lint, none of the rest of his clothes visible anywhere near him.

Sand, parched soil, rocks and cacti as far as the eye could see, some interesting rock formations far in the distance in two directions, more sand and more cacti in the other two. He hoped he was somewhere east of Los Angeles, but knowing where was impossible at this point. 

It was sameness everywhere he looked, burning sameness. He realized how dry his lips and mouth were and, despite knowing he could survive without food or drink (he was immortal, after all), he would be a lot more comfortable if he had something wet.

He looked around at the various types of cacti that seemed to stretch from horizon to horizon. There were several different kinds, but his eye settled on the familiar form of a prickly pear, the fruit covered with annoying sharp little glochids that could shred human hands and would probably hurt his for a second or two, but their flesh was sweet and moist.

Stretching the tip of a wing, he knocked several pieces of fruit off one of the cacti and literally hopped until he was close enough to pick them up. He tore an orangey red one open, only slightly bothered by the itching of his fingers, and held the soft fleshy fruit to his lips. It tasted not quite sweet but it was not unpleasant. And it was blessedly wet. As he sucked at the flesh, he felt immediately better and more clear-headed, one problem alleviated at least for the moment.

He knew there was no way he could walk in bare feet across the scorching ground. There would be no permanent injury of course, but each step would burn the soles of his feet and he knew that shoeless it was simply out of the question. It seemed the skin of his body had its limits as well. Many of the burns and blisters were already healing, but hours in the searing heat would only create more and he was very disinclined to feeling as if someone had lit him on fire.

There really was only one thing for it. He folded up his trousers and sat carefully on them, making a canopy of his wings to shield his body from the sun’s punishing rays, trusting the albedo effect of the brilliant white would give him some protection until nightfall.

He decided to stay right where he was and concentrate his energies on stretching and strengthening his back muscles after their long disuse. His back was to the sun, he knew the long scapular feathers would protect the skin of his lower back from burning. He stretched the length of his wings over his head, the tips barely brushing the ground a few feet in front of him, creating a rather nice canopy that was immediately cooler than the wretched heat that surrounded him.

His shoulder muscles protested at the forward position of his wings, but he knew he would be comfortable enough for a few hours.

He sat cross-legged under the welcome cover, back straight, and settled his mind on the function of his physical form, feeling the flow of energy out to the tips of the wings and returning to the base, focusing as much as he could on the long-dormant muscles that lay beneath, mentally filling them with warmth and strength, willing them to connect as they used to, when using the divine limbs had been as easy as breathing. 

He knew that the muscle memory would be there, as immortal as himself. It would just take a little time for him to get airborne again, to get home. And he intended to do that once night fell. He could survive easily enough, he knew, but did not want to spend another full day under the killing rays of the desert sun. No. That simply would not do.

It struck him suddenly that he was truly alone in this arid wilderness, yet the thought was not disturbing. To his surprise, he actually felt rather glad for time without any distraction at all. Time to contemplate all that had happened in the last few weeks, and beyond to what lay ahead. To what he truly wanted his next steps on earth to be. He found himself surprisingly grateful for this respite from the frenzy of his earthly life, whether it was by choice or not.

Yes, and who’s choice had it been to fling him into this predicament?

As the shadows began to lengthen, he realized the sun would set behind him, and he hoped Los Angeles lay in that direction. By the way the sun appeared to move, he knew the latitude was the same as he was used to. From the prickly pears he had found, his guess was the Mojave, or perhaps the Sonoran Desert east of the city, maybe as far as the Nevada border, but he couldn’t be certain without a visual reference point, and he wasn’t going to get that until he could soar above the parched land and get his bearings.

The last of the light was disappearing, when a slight movement on the sand in front of his feet caught his attention. A rather smallish yellowy brown scorpion was poised beside his toes, its little claws lifted as if waving at him. He stretched his left hand in front of the tiny creature and it immediately crawled onto his outstretched palm. He brought it closer to his face to get a better look at it and was a little surprised that it did not try and sting. Not that it would have had any effect on his celestial constitution, but it seemed unusually non-aggressive. He examined it closely and noted the stripes running up its tail, then starting chuckling.

My little namesake. A devil scorpion. It was a small one, at most under three inches in total length. Ah, so it’s the Sonoran Desert then. A little farther than he had hoped, but at least not half a world away.

He set his hand back down on the sand and the little beast ran away to do whatever it is that little scorpions do when they emerge at dusk.

Lucifer was glad to note the temperature dropping as he gave his wings a flap and stood up to look around. In point of fact, it was cool enough that he decided to put his trousers back on.

He tested the wings again, moving them this way and that, trying all directions and positions. His shoulders were still sore, but far from the pain when he had first tried to use his new limbs. He had complete feeling right to the tips of the longest flight feathers. He stretched them as far as he could and took a tentative flap, delighted to find himself a few feet airborne, but the ache intensified and he dropped back to the ground.

Damn it! He was going to have to practise like a bloody fledgling. How annoying!

But practise he did, falling into a rhythm of flapping and stretching and resting, actually thinking of all the baby birds he had seen doing the very same thing.

“Well,” he said aloud, “I guess I am rather a fledgling at the moment,” though he certainly could not remember any time when he hadn’t been able to use his original pair. “I must look a complete idiot,” he couldn’t help smiling at the ridiculous picture he must have made. 

Then again, he supposed he was the only one of the Host who had ever cut off his wings in the whole history of the Universe. Who knew that even his immortal muscles could atrophy, or even partially atrophy for that matter. The connections were all good and growing stronger with each movement. Just a little while longer.

He decided he would rest for awhile. Looking around, he settled himself on a small boulder and took an inventory of his surroundings. The night sky was inky black and thick with stars, a million, no a billion more than you could see at night in Los Angeles, and he had a sudden pang of sadness for the millions of souls who spent their whole lives without ever seeing – well, this. The magnificence of it. The incredible beauty.

He had had a hand in fashioning some of that beauty and felt a small flash of pride in his long-ago work. 

Ah, Dad, you were one hell of an architect, and Mum, quite the engineer (and all of us kids the construction workers, he added with a laugh)……….

He wondered what had become of the Goddess, what sort of universe she was beginning to create. He was glad he hadn’t destroyed her, or unleashed her into Heaven with all the horror and destruction that would have resulted…….When all was said and done, she was his mother and he sent out a silent wish that she would be happy in her new universe.

He was reminded of something Maze had screamed at him (“you are just like your parents!”) and had to admit that she was partially right, in that he could not help but be a blend of the two supreme beings who had made him. He was part of them both after all, and the essence of each of them lived within him.

But he would always strive to not BE them. To be different. To be his own Self.

He wondered if it was Maze who had knocked him unconscious and brought him out here, what, to die? She had been at the hospital (he had seen her glowering through the glass at him as he spoke with the injured doctor), and he knew she was still angry at him for not sharing his plans with her. Nearly losing Linda might have sent her into a right glorious rage. 

But mad enough to try and kill him? Or leave him to suffer a hellish sort of torment without shoes, socks, shirt or vehicle in a blistering hot desert?

Then there was the matter of the wings. Why now? And, more importantly, why at all? He wondered if Dad was rewarding him for his solution to the conundrum of his Mother. Even Uriel had said, “you know Dad would forgive her, and then she’d end up destroying him…..” 

Perhaps his Father had really liked the idea of Mum getting her own universe to play in and avoiding an inevitable war if he had used the sword to rend the gates of the Silver City. The All Mighty was in truth, after all, full of surprises. For everyone, it seemed.

For some reason, the thought of his new wings being a gift from his Father did not bother him, as it would have a mere few days ago. Perhaps whoever had hit him, had hit a lot harder than he first thought. He should be angry.

But he wasn’t, and he really was not sure why.

He continued practising with his wings, oblivious to the myriad creatures emerging from their daytime hiding places. He could hear rustlings and quiet calls, but paid them no mind. Even the most poisonous rattler or scorpion would have no effect on him, though he had heard that a rattlesnake bite could send a human into a nearly psychedelic state (before they died). Doubtless none of the creatures would pay any heed to a winged man jumping and flapping in the darkness.

He did not notice the one pair of eyes that were paying real attention to him. A small gila monster, only about a foot long, sat on a rock watching the strange man leaping about. Had it possessed vocal cords it would have laughed out loud. The entity that was looking through the lizard’s borrowed eyes crinkled them in real amusement, before vacating the tiny brain and leaving it to its natural activities……

 

_________

Chloe looked at her watch, nearly 10:00 p.m. This had been a very long and very strange day.

Charlotte Richards had been taken to the hospital, apparently suffering a very convenient case of amnesia that went all the way back to the day they had first cracked the drug ring involving her office. She was either a very good actress, or she was in the middle of some sort of nervous breakdown, babbling about being stabbed in the neck and looking at them all as if they’d grown five or six additional heads. She did not seem to recognize Lucifer, or even Dan, despite the fact that she had slept with him on more than one occasion. 

Lucifer had left the Santa Monica pier to check on Linda at the hospital, apparently another victim of Charlotte’s, he had explained, as usual making himself scarce before Chloe could get many details. She had managed to find out that Charlotte had stabbed the doctor and that Lucifer’s brother and Maze had found her, the latter rushing her to the hospital.

The ambulance had taken Charlotte to Beth Israel in Santa Monica and Chloe decided to follow in her car, thanking Dan profusely for heading to the apartment to make dinner for Trixie, while Chloe attempted to question the confused attorney. 

She used her police ID to pressure the hospital staff into letting her see Charlotte, who seemed lucid, though obviously bewildered, claiming never to have seen Chloe before waking on the beach that day, and vehemently denying ever having seen Lucifer before in her life. She had, she said, no recollection of ever having a personal conversation with Chloe, did not remember Perry Smith’s trial, or telling her that she had been married to Lucifer’s father. She also did not seem to recall how she got the scar on her arm and instead kept rubbing the back of her neck.

She wasn’t physically injured, no signs of even a concussion from the fall, but her apparent amnesia (or the act she was putting on) was enough to have her held for a psych evaluation. No one could explain the swath of duct tape across her abdomen, the skin unbroken beneath it. 

Despite her objections, the admitting physician insisted that the detective leave and only return when the psych assessment was completed. 

Chloe tried half-heartedly to object, but she was tired and really did want to get home.

As she left the hospital, she turned her phone back on and listened to Lucifer’s voicemail. The message had come in 50 minutes prior at 9:06. He was probably already at the apartment. She punched Dan’s number and told him she was on her way and asked if Lucifer had arrived yet. At Dan’s negative she mentioned her partner’s message and said to expect him, then dialed Lucifer’s number.

But his phone went immediately to voicemail.

______

 

When she got back to her place half an hour later, she tried Lucifer’s number again and again it went directly to voicemail. She left a message telling him it was late and she was tired, and if he’d got sidetracked on his way over, she was happy to defer their talk until the next day. “See you tomorrow, okay?”

Dan looked exhausted. After informing her that he had put Trixie to bed an hour before, and had made tacos for dinner, he asked (somewhat too eagerly, she thought) if she’d managed to extract any information from the befuddled attorney.

“Not a nugget,” she told him. “I just don’t trust her, Dan. She claims she doesn’t remember anything for the last six months, it’s insane--”

“Is that even possible?” Dan asked, “I mean I’ve heard of amnesia happening to accident victims, and that was a helluva fall off the pier, but wiping out months? Could that even happen?”

“I really don’t know…..I’ve certainly never heard of it if it has. You’re right, you know, people might blank out a really traumatic assault or an accident, but months and months? I just don’t buy it……….And yet….” Her voice trailed away, a little furrow appearing between her eyes.

“What?” Dan asked.

“It’s weird, Dan. This is going to sound crazy, but I got the feeling tonight that she was telling the truth, that she really doesn’t remember……..Either she’s a way better actress than I ever was and is working on an insanity defense……or she really doesn’t remember……

“You know what? I’m going to take Lucifer to see her and do his mind-thing, you know, get her to tell the truth……..She told me herself not a week ago that she was married to Lucifer’s dad and thought of him as her son, they obviously know each other well……and he calls her ‘mum’ – so what the hell is that about?....At the very least, it’ll be really interesting to see if he can get anything out of her.”

She looked at him with a raised eyebrow, then said “What exactly did happen on that pier today? I was looking at Hector Ruiz directly, saw him fire, heard you fire…….and then it was like we skipped a minute or went into some kind of time warp and then we were looking over the railing at Lucifer and Charlotte on the beach……Did you see her fall? Was Lucifer trying to catch her? How did he end up down there without me seeing him? He was behind me and she was in front of me and, for the life of me, I don’t REMEMBER how the hell she got over that railing…..”

Dan looked completely perplexed and it was obvious he too was trying to remember what he had seen. His brow furrowed as hers had done.

“You know what? I can’t remember either. He fired, I fired……..next thing I remember is Ruiz being down. Lucifer and Charlotte were gone, like they just vanished or something…….I mean, I didn’t even blink, but it’s like…….like you said, some weird time warp………I’m not liking this, weird shit is happening…”

“That’s what Lucifer said in his message! He said ‘I’m on my way over to tell you the whole truth, why weird things happen when I’m around’……” She had a faraway look but the concern hadn’t left her features. In almost a whisper she added, “A lot of weird things…..”

_______

The next morning she still didn’t think too much about Lucifer’s failure to show up. Unpredictable was his predictable, after all. Worry crept in when she called his number again as she waited for the coffee to finish brewing, and it once more went directly to voicemail. “If you get this message, Lucifer, call me right back…….I need your help with something. Just on my way in now….”

She grabbed her purse and called for Trixie “Get a move on, monkey, don’t want to be late for school – only two more days and then you’re on summer vacation!” 

Trixie’s happy laugh was all the distraction Chloe needed.

After that, the day went as smoothly as could be expected, despite the familiar and inevitable piles of paperwork waiting for her. She tried several more times to call Lucifer, but always with the same result.

Linda’s office had been made a violent crime scene, and when she arrived she found Ella Lopez and the rest of the forensics team still gathering evidence, amidst a shocking amount of blood and a huge burn hole in the wall, furniture toppled over from an obviously violent struggle. She pictured poor Linda fighting for her life and could barely believe that Charlotte Richards was capable of such a brutal attack.

Lucifer’s step-mom. What could possibly have motivated her to do such a thing?

When she got back to the precinct she called Beth Israel Hospital and was told, no, she could not see Charlotte, not today. She demanded to speak with the psychiatrist in charge of her and all he would tell her was that the lawyer appeared to be in some sort of fugue state and that her amnesia seemed genuine, though she did get him to admit that he had never heard of anything exactly like it before and that he was as puzzled as she was. They were running many more tests today and Chloe would just have to wait.

Maze had not returned to the flat the previous night, Chloe assuming she had stayed at the hospital. Her roommate had genuine affection for Linda. She’d called Maze after dropping her daughter off at school, and found that in fact her assumption was correct.

Linda was stable and expected to recover, but in the ICU, and it had been close, very close. If they hadn’t found her when they did, she surely would have died. 

Chloe told her she’d stop in to see the good doctor over the lunch hour and asked her if she’d heard from Lucifer, only to meet with stony silence.

“Maze? Are you there? Lucifer left me a message around 9:00 last night saying he was on his way over to talk about something…..he never showed up and he hasn’t answered his phone. I need some answers and I need him to go with me to do his mojo on Charlotte…”

“You mean he didn’t kill her?” Maze hissed at her. “After what that bitch did to Linda?? Nearly killed her, burned her……..stabbed her! How could Lucifer let his mother get away with this?!” 

And there was another confirmation of the Charlotte/Lucifer connection, before Chloe said, “She fell off the pier at Santa Monica, she’s in the hospital, claims she’s never met any of us before, doesn’t have a clue who Lucifer or Dan are, or me for that matter, looks at US like we’re all crazy…….says the last thing she remembers is getting stabbed by that guy in the hotel…….like six months ago. Something weird is going on here. You can’t just forget six months of your life and remember everything else. I’m not buying her psycho act………….So I guess you haven’t heard from Lucifer either then?”

Maze gave a derisive snort. “So he’s gone and bolted again has he? Sounds about right to me. It’s all his fault all this is happening. Because of him Linda nearly died. He better stay away from me, because I’m going to kick his ass so hard ---“

“Maze, okay, focus here for a sec, please. I’m on my way over, okay?”

________

Linda looked terrible. Chloe was actually shocked at the sight of her. She had taken quite a beating. Her arms were completely covered in thick bandages, only the tips of her fingers visible and it didn’t look like she was able to make much use of her hands. She had an IV plugged into one arm, and a nasal oxygen tube attached. She was sluggish and obviously on heavy drugs, but her face brightened when she saw Chloe.

Maze was sitting at her bedside laughing at something the two had shared.

“Hey,” Chloe said, “You look a lot better than I expected. How are you feeling?”

“Like shit,” Linda answered with a laugh. “I figured you’d catch this case…..are you here for a statement? And where’s Lucifer? I figured he’d be in with you, when Maze told me you were on your way…….”

“I don’t know where he is, Linda. No one has seen him or heard from him since last night after he left here.”

“I don’t care where he is,” Maze snarled at them both. “It’s all his fault—“

“Now, Maze,” Linda spoke softly. “You know that’s not true. It was my mistake that tipped off his mother, I should have just kept my mouth shut…..”

“Well, so you say,” Maze gave a grudging sniff. “The coffee isn’t too bad in this horrid place, maybe I’ll go round some up. And there is that exceptionally cute young doctor that’s been lurking down the hall,” she stood up with a twinkle, “I’ll leave you two alone to talk.” With that, she left them.

Chloe sat in the chair Maze had vacated and looked at Linda. “So tell me, doc, why did Charlotte Richards attack you?”

“You mean, Lucifer’s mother……..”

“Step-mom,” Chloe corrected.

“Oh,” came the strange answer. “So he hasn’t told you after all……”

“Told me what? You just said ‘I should have kept my mouth shut’ – what is that supposed to mean?”

“Oops, there I go again……must be these painkillers making me say inappropriate things.”

Chloe looked at her and saw the little glint in Linda’s eye.

“OK, doctor, what is going on? You haven’t given a statement yet, you know, and I’m pretty curious about what went on at your office. From the looks of the place, you two really went at it……”

The doctor had a stubborn look on her face before saying, “I can’t give you my statement now, Chloe, for very good reasons. Talk to Lucifer, then both of you come to see me….”

“I can’t talk to him, he’s done his disappearing act again, no one has seen him since he left here yesterday.…”

“He left about 9:00…..” Linda whispered. “He said he had to do something right away.”

“Yes, I know,” Chloe fished for her phone and pulled up Lucifer’s voicemail and played it for her friend.

“Ah,” Linda smiled when the message was over, “I figured he was going to see you. Look, Chloe, for whatever reason he’s not making himself available, you have to talk to him before I can give you my statement. Be patient…..Trust me, you’ll understand. I’m sorry to sound so cryptic, but I’d be violating some pretty serious ethical boundaries….

“I want to tell you, I really do, but I can’t say anymore than that. Not now.”

She smiled warmly, her eyes glittering. “You can tell me what happened to Charlotte Richards though……”

Chloe was puzzled, perhaps Linda was really on too many painkillers to make sense, but Chloe was beginning to feel uncertain of her own state of mind and began telling Linda of Charlotte’s apparent six-month amnesia so conveniently appearing as she was about to be charged with murder and attempted murder.

And then Linda asked the strangest question. “You mean she is Charlotte Richards again and not Lucifer’s mother?”

Chloe looked at her, not comprehending the question. Linda chuckled. “Well, we do seem to be at an impasse here, at least for the moment…….Just trust me, Chloe, you’ll understand as soon as you talk to Lucifer.”

“Well, you won’t tell me what happened, so how about this – what do you think, in your professional opinion, could be going on with Charlotte? Is it actually possible to have amnesia for six months of your life, but going along the whole time, taking on cases, doing your job, taking care of your family, living and doing whatever you do, all the time knowing who you are and not claiming anything else, and then, wham, you remember nothing? 

“She actually claims she’s never met any of us before………I think she might be working on an insanity defense. She is in a heap of trouble, no matter what kind of a shark lawyer she is……But I’m not buying it……No one is that good of an actress……” 

She’d been pacing the floor at the foot of Linda’s bed as she thought out loud, then looked at her friend. The good doctor looked completely amused before she said “Normally (whatever ‘normal’ is, and I’m really not sure I know anymore), normally I would say ‘not a chance’ and ‘she’s faking’……..but in this case, considering the extraordinary circumstances, I’m going to have to say it IS possible, and leave it at that. In THIS case, Chloe.”

The detective fixed her with a look and Linda smiled at her confusion and consternation.

“It’ll all become clear……” she said.

“Right. When I talk to Lucifer.”  
_______

Back at the precinct, Chloe wanted to throw her coffee cup against the wall in frustration. It had been a useless and irritating day, wrapped in a mystery and one that she desperately wanted to solve.

But she was stuck. Linda wouldn’t talk. She couldn’t talk to Charlotte. All the evidence gathered at Linda’s office pointed to the lawyer – the letter opener she had stabbed Linda with was covered in her prints, her prints again written in blood on the door handle, the wall, Linda’s desk…….The assault seemed open and shut. And vicious.

She glanced at the clock on the wall. It was 2:45 and just enough time to get to Trixie’s school. She looked around the bullpen and was relieved to see Dan. Normal. I need some normal, she mused as she waved him over.

“I’m just about to go pick Trixie up, and, um, I thought maybe we could all have dinner. I could use a dose of ‘normal’ right about now, Dan. Linda won’t talk to me, she keeps saying ‘ask Lucifer then both of you come and take my statement’ – this isn’t like her. She knows how serious this is. Lucifer obviously knows something he’s not telling us--”

Dan gave a resigned sigh. “It always seems to come back to Lucifer, doesn’t it?”

Chloe nodded.

“I’ve just gotta get away from this for a few hours. Maybe clearing my head will help me sort it out – it’s all just happening so fast. Feels like we’re stuck in one of those old Twilight Zone episodes.”

Dan let out a laugh. “It does that, doesn’t it? Damn, the weirdest stuff happens around that guy, well, his whole family really, at least the ones we’ve met….”

(“I want tell you why weird things happen when I’m around…..”) No. She would think about that later.

They made plans to actually meet at a restaurant at 6:00. Tomorrow was Trixie’s last day at school, it could sometimes get uncomfortably hot in June and classes finished on the 2nd. Tomorrow. Dan had Trixie for the weekend, as usual, and Chloe was looking forward to a bit of down time after a week of frustration and confusion. 

Two parents and their kid out for dinner. That’s normal, she told herself. They’d talk about summer vacation. About normal things. And it would distract her from the gut feeling that told her there was a lot more to this than she knew……..

________

 

Lucifer kept on practising, resting a few moments and then resuming his efforts. Eventually he was able to get higher and higher, until at last he could achieve a few hundred feet and glide forward a few thousand, before soreness forced him to land again and rest his aching shoulder muscles.

But patience was rewarded and he was eventually able to sustain forward motion flight at a height suitable enough to choose a westward route. He had noticed a small range of rocky formations in the right direction and decided to use that as a target for his next attempt. It was perhaps ten miles away.

He took an extra few minutes to rest and then launched himself into the air.

The flight was difficult, but he managed it, soaring on a convenient thermal or two, until he was near his selected target. It hurt, yes, but that didn’t stop him……..

He made it to the top of the rock formation, high enough that with his supernatural vision he could see another formation far in the distance, its presence obvious by the break in starlight at the horizon.

His next target. 

He continued this on-and-off progress for the next couple of hours, figuring he had cut at least dozens of miles off his journey, perhaps even a hundred or more.

But the stars were beginning to fade and looking back he could see the eastern sky beginning to lighten. He knew there would be no way to make it back to LA before sunrise and cursed his luck.

At least he could make another flight and hopefully find a formation that would offer him shelter from the sun for another day.

Steeling himself against the gnawing ache in his shoulder muscles, he took flight again as the dawn broke. He managed another few miles before spying an outcrop that looked suitable, large crevices in a rocky pile, large enough to offer shade and shelter.

He landed uncomfortably, the muscles and tendons at the wing bases vibrating uncontrollably. It was time to rest them. 

He willed the wings to vanish and was astonished at the pain that shot through him and nearly brought him to his knees. The wings stayed.

Oh, this was not good. Not good at all. It was a simple act of will to make the wings invisible, yet for some reason he could not do it. The fiery pain was exactly at the point on his spine between the two wings. Something was very wrong.

He knew it meant another day in the blasted heat. Great. He felt a flash of annoyance, but decided he may as well play the cards he was dealt in this hand. 

He couldn’t exactly fly about during the day, after all, and risk being spotted. Without being able to retract his wings he couldn’t even make it to a town to seek help. He let out a rueful chuckle at the thought of just waltzing into a desert inn or gas station half-naked and trailing ten-foot wings behind him. “I could just sit down, order a cold beer and casually ask if anyone is heading to LA.” The thought made him laugh out loud.

No. He was going to have to spend another long brutal day in the desert.

He stretched his wings to their full width, then brought them together behind him and began to explore the rocky castle that would be his home for the day. He walked around the base of the formation, then noticed a cleft in the rocks that seemed to lead into the giant pile. It was wide enough for him to enter, and it surprised him to see quite a few plants on the ground, the deeper into the cleft, the thicker they became.

The passage ended at a rock face, a crack running down the centre of it. And then his ears caught a faint but very welcome sound.

Running water! 

He could smell it, and after a moment he could see a small trickle of wetness oozing from the crack in the rock wall ahead of him. It wasn’t much, but, oh, the sight was so gratifying! 

He stuck his hand into the tiny patch of moisture and brought his wet fingers to his lips. The finest scotch ever distilled on the earth would not have tasted sweeter at that moment, and he found a sudden new appreciation for this most basic of elements. Yes, he would spend the hot day in his little oasis, it was enough to give him respite from the terrible heat he knew was coming. 

It was the only real choice he had at the moment, but he felt a wave of gratitude nonetheless……..The light was coming strong now and he settled himself against the rock wall, wings extended against the stone, still cool and comfortable from the chilly desert night.

He figured it was about 4:30 or 5:00 in the morning. 

And then she popped into his head. The detective. He had a mental picture of her sleeping in her own bed, scrunched comfortably amidst half a dozen pillows, and he whispered “Don’t worry, Chloe, please don’t worry. I’ll explain everything. I promise.” It was silly, he knew, she couldn’t possibly hear him…..


	2. Chapter 2

The dinner had been great. They had gone to a little café near Chloe’s apartment that made a veggie burger so good that the even most diehard carnivore would have drooled over it. Chloe had found it accidentally while exploring the neighbourhood with Trixie, they had stopped in for a bite and both of them had enjoyed it so much that they went back every couple of weeks or so.

Trixie had been eager to get her dad to taste the veggie burger and even Dan had to admit it was as good as he’d ever had, even without the bacon he always insisted on as a topping. It was served with loads of cheese though and mushrooms, sliced tomato, dill pickle and lettuce and a sauce so delicious that even he was impressed. The ‘burger’ was thick and juicy and Dan could have sworn it was actually meat.

“Wow, this is really delicious,” he said through a large bite.

“Thought you’d like it,” Chloe smiled at him. “Isn’t this place great? They have really good pastries too….and chocolate cake,” she added sotto voce, giving Trixie a wink.

“Oh, mum, chocolate cake is so ‘last year’” (Chloe snorted) “I really like those pastries with the cherries and blueberries on top with icing on them!!” 

They all laughed. This was so what Chloe needed. Just a nice normal dinner, normal family time (Yeah. Divorced parents. One who slept with an apparent murderer, the other working with the weirdest guy on the planet and living with a ‘friend’ of his who was just as weird. Weird and angry. NO. Just No. I will NOT go there……..)

When she and Trixie got home that night, there was no homework to do, so they made popcorn and settled in to watch a movie.

By 9:30 Trixie was bleary-eyed and Chloe was ready for a glass of wine. As the little one came out in her PJ’s for a goodnight hug, she looked at Chloe and asked “Did Lucifer’s mom blow up?”

Chloe thought her own head might, but calmly said “What do you mean, sweetheart?”

Trixie sighed, then explained, “Lucifer came over to talk to Maze about his mom. I think they were talking in code, cuz I didn’t know what they meant. Lucifer wanted Maze to go hunting for him. He said that they had to stop his mum before she exploded and spewed light everywhere….What does ‘spewed light’ mean?”

“I don’t know, sweetie, nobody exploded in Los Angeles today, as far as I know, so maybe you’re right about them talking in code…….I have no idea what that could mean, so don’t you worry about it, okay? Come on, let’s go tuck you in. Tomorrow’s a short day and then you’re on vacation!” She tickled the child’s ribs, to much giggling, as she herded her up the stairs.

But her mind was whirling. Why would Lucifer tell Maze that his mother was going to explode? Did he know that she was going to attack Linda? Could that be what he meant?

After kissing the child goodnight, she made her way downstairs and cracked a bottle of white chardonnay. It tasted wonderful after the day, no week, no, make that month(s) that had just passed. 

She plunked herself down on the couch and punched the flat screen on. It was set on CNN. Oh god, more endless drivel about endless drivel, I can’t handle this, not tonight, or my brain is going to shut down. 

She flicked a few channels and found a PBS station showing some Brit mystery, kicked off her shoes, and leaned back into the sofa for some simple escapism (and those Brits could do a damned fine murder mystery, usually set in small country villages, so many murders you wondered that any townsfolk were left).

She awoke uncomfortably on the couch around 2:00 a.m., turned the TV off and crawled up the stairs to bed, shedding her clothes on the floor without caring, and not even bothering to reach for her LAPD sleep shirt.

She woke only once more, and sat up, with the oddest sensation that Lucifer was in the room with her……..she could hear his voice, as if close to her ear, “….don’t worry, I’ll explain everything, I promise……” It was eerily real in the very early light. Glancing at the bedside clock it had just gone 5:00. 

With a disgusted grunt, she pulled a pillow over her ears and snuggled back into the warm covers to sleep for another hour or so.

 

____

Chloe spent most of Friday afternoon thinking of Lucifer. She had the techs ping his phone, only to find that it was at Lux, according to the GPS. Either he was there or the phone was. Whatever he was up to, she wasn’t content to just twiddle her thumbs and wait to get in touch.

Maze was no more help than she had been the day before. The very mention of Lucifer’s name set a hard and vicious look on her face and Chloe was more than satisfied that Maze seemed unwilling to leave Linda alone.

It was the last day of school and Trixie was wild with excitement. Both she and Dan had left early, again no satisfaction in being able to interview Charlotte and having to endure more than one perfunctory and threatening call from her legal office.

But Trixie was the most important issue today. It was Dan’s time with her for the weekend, and she felt almost sad as the two drove off in Dan’s car, Trixie waving at her through the window as they sped away.

_________

By 11:00 that night, she’d had enough. She would at least head to LUX and see if she could find any clue to Lucifer’s whereabouts. The club was still closed and had been for nearly a month, so she wouldn’t have to fight the Friday night partygoers and it would make looking around a whole lot easier.

The drive took only 15 minutes, as traffic was light and she nodded to the security guard as she pulled into the empty underground parking lot. She had come armed, though technically she was off duty, but with all the things going on that week, it was best if she covered her bases. Just in case.

She made her way to the security office and flashed her police ID to the middle-aged man on duty.

“Oh, I recognize you, Miss Decker, you’re the boss’ friend,” he told her, “I’m Don, what can I do for you?”

“I’m looking for your boss, actually. No one’s been able to get in touch with him for a couple of days. Don’t suppose you’ve seen him, have you?”

Don gave her a puzzled look. “No, I haven’t, but it’s odd, the Corvette is in his private spot. Been there a couple days – if he’s not here, he always takes that car….Oh wait!” he opened the drawer of the desk, “come to think of it, this is kind of strange. When I came on shift last night, I did my walk-around and found the boss’ keys in the car,” he handed them to her. “That really isn’t like him at all. Car was in its usual spot, it wasn’t running or anything, but the keys were in the ignition. I thought maybe he ran up to the penthouse to get something…..but a couple hours later when I did my rounds again, the keys were still there, so I brought them up here and put them in the drawer…..I’d almost forgotten. I told Rick on day shift where they were. Guess he didn’t see him either.”

“Thanks,” Chloe said. “Think I’ll check out the vehicle,” as she made her way to Lucifer’s private parking area. The Corvette was in its usual spot. She looked it over and everything seemed just as it always was. It was a ’62 with no electronics, no computer, no GPS system. He never locked it, but she took the keys and unlocked the trunk.

Inside she found a neatly folded black jacket, on top of it the dark shirt Lucifer had been wearing a couple of days ago, next to it a very expensive pair of Italian leather shoes with socks tucked inside. She reached for the jacket and there was Lucifer’s cel, turned off, an odd piece that looked like a large silver spike, and a money clip holding a thick wad of folded bills. It had all been tidily arranged as if by Lucifer himself or someone at least who respected his things. She grabbed the shoes and clothes and decided to check the penthouse.

Leaving his keys in the car was not a good sign. It wasn’t like him. He loved that car, he would never leave it so begging to be stolen, he just wouldn’t.

She headed to the elevator and used Lucifer’s private key to summon it. On the way up to the top floor, she tucked the clothing under one arm and drew her weapon. Best not to take any chances. She would check the penthouse first, then look around the club for any clue that might tell her where Lucifer had got to.

When the door slid open and she stepped inside, it was obvious that no one was there…. In the light of the elevator car, she holstered the weapon and reached for the light switch.

The place was immaculate, as it usually was, everything tidily in its place, nothing untoward. She didn’t bother to call out, it was obviously unoccupied.

She put the clothing and shoes on the bar behind the piano and walked to the terrace doors. The solar lights were on amidst the many plants that lived in the outside space, but again, nothing seemed amiss. 

She went back inside and made her way to the bedroom, flipping on the light as she entered. Again, orderly. The bed was made, Lucifer’s black silk robe across the top of the pillows. It hadn’t been slept in, the curtains were drawn, nothing seemed out of place or suspicious.

The sudden loud crash made her jump nearly out of her skin in the quiet of the apartment. She backed into the wall, gun drawn, and crept to the opening of the bedroom and down the two steps to the spacious living room. The noise had come from the terrace. She could see the overturned plants.

And there, on his hands and knees in the debris of broken pots, was Lucifer, panting hard, head almost touching the cement tiles of the deck. He was only half-dressed, missing his shirt, his feet bare. 

But it was the huge white wings that lay stretched out flat to either side of him, twitching in the moonlight, that had her gasping with astonishment, the wings that were sprouting from Lucifer’s back.

At the sound she made, he raised his head and locked eyes with hers.

In an exhausted voice, he rasped “Not exactly how I’d pictured telling you, Detective, but I guess it will have to do--” as he attempted to stand, not very successfully. 

She was beside him immediately, holstering her gun as she ran to the balcony and knelt beside him to offer an arm, which he gratefully accepted.

In a moment he was up on his feet, but with difficulty, all his muscles seemed to be spasming along with the wings, so she just held him up for a moment. He moved the wings so that they were folded behind him, took a very deep breath or two, as she helped support his weight, telling him softly “come on, let’s get you inside, shall we?”

“And then you can tell me what the hell is going on… Oh, and while you’re at it, um, how come you have, um, wings?”

She helped him to the couch where he sat heavily. “I could use a drink,” he said.

It seemed such a non-sequitur and so ‘Lucifer’ that she couldn’t help but burst out laughing, there was only a slight edge of hysteria to it.

“Seriously, Lucifer? Seriously?” 

He smiled at her. “Just water, my dear Detective, seems I’ve developed quite an appreciation for it lately – being dropped in the desert’ll do that, even to me…..” He nodded towards the bar.

She checked the bar fridge, found the Britta and poured him a glass, looking down at him as he sipped the liquid nonchalantly. Yes, just a normal night at Lucifer’s place, Chloe thought inanely.

“Ah,” he gave a satisfied sigh and placed the glass on the coffee table in front on him. Leaning back, he stretched his wings along the back of the couch, Chloe noting that they trailed a foot on either side of it. She found herself staring and realized she must’ve looked absent when he said “Getting a good look, are you luv?”

“Could, well, could I, you know, touch them?” she asked softly.

“Of course you may.” His voice was quiet and his face calm. He was looking at her intently, as if trying to read her mind, as she sat on the edge of the couch beside him and ran her left hand along the spine of his right wing, little flashes of light beneath her hand as she gently stroked it.

“They’re beautiful,” she whispered. And then she seemed to snap out of her reverie and she looked at him. “Where’ve you been for the last couple of days? What happened? What do you mean by ‘being dropped in the desert’? And why do you have wings? Start talking, mister, or I think I’m going to go crazy…..”

“I was on my way to see you,” he began, “walking towards my car in the hospital parking lot--” 

“But your car is here,” Chloe interrupted, as she stood up. “In your private spot. The rest of your clothes were in the trunk. And your shoes. Your phone too and your money clip, doesn’t look like you were robbed. It’s all over there on the bar. Your security guard said he found the keys in the ignition yesterday, as if you’d run up here to get something.”

“Now, that’s interesting,” Lucifer said, a thoughtful look on his face. “I definitely was driving the Corvette. I was leaving you a message, put my phone in my pocket, and then somebody cold-cocked me and knocked me out. I woke up in the desert, no shoes or shirt, no phone, nothing—I woke up I think around noon? What day is it?”

“Friday, you’ve been missing since Wednesday night….”

“Then it was yesterday I woke up…..It was bloody hot. It came as a huge surprise to me that my wings were back, thank Dad. Whoever hit me must’ve driven my car back here…..” his voice drifted away as he thought about the meaning of this latest bit of info. “That’s rather thoughtful for a thief, don’t you think? And a thief that doesn’t steal anything….No mortal human could have knocked me unconscious, no matter how hard they hit me – it had to be another angel………or a demon.”

And then it hit her. As her knees began to wobble, she sat down heavily on the coffee table facing Lucifer. “You’re….you’re HIM…..”

“Yes, my dear Detective. Lucifer Morningstar. Lightbringer. Fallen Angel Extraordinaire. Former Ruler of Hell. Current denizen of Earth and devilishly handsome man about town. At your service.” He bowed his head at her, a small smile playing on his lips.

“And, um, you, uh FLEW back here…..”

“Well, I couldn’t exactly walk on bare feet through the desert. There were no roads where I was dumped, no sign of anyone. And, well, the wings didn’t quite work as well as the original pair at first, so I had to, uh, practise a bit before I could manage it---”

Chloe’s expression was indecipherable, a mix of so many thoughts and emotions on her face that Lucifer thought her brain might actually seize up like an overheated engine. He reached over and took one of her hands in his.

“Are you all right?” he asked, his voice gentle.

That seemed to bring her around. “Yes, yes, I, um…….at least I think so…..It’s all true then, all those things you’ve been saying? I thought you might be crazy or delusional or – I don’t even know what I thought, what I’m thinking……

“God? Heaven? Hell? It’s all true?” (This last almost a squeak.)

“Yes, it’s all true. Just not quite the story you’ve been told……Humans got quite a bit of it wrong…..”

“Jimmy Barnes……….that first case we worked on…….he really shot you, didn’t he….”

“’Fraid so,” he answered, and kept on answering, as her questions came fast, tumbling out as the images of all the weirdness filled her head, all her crazy suspicions about her odd partner. So much, so very much to process…..

_____

They talked into the night. Sometimes she let him speak for ten minutes, at other times she peppered him with the questions that popped into her mind…….

After awhile, she had moved to the couch beside him. Neither of them noticed some time later when he slipped his arm around her shoulders. He had filled her in on who was really who, on Malcolm and Amenadiel resurrecting him for murderous intent, on the warehouse, her poisoning, on Charlotte Richard’s true identity and the manic dysfunctionality of his real family.

It was so much to take in, but Chloe did her best. Lucifer thought her questions intelligent and pertinent and marveled at her seeming ability to absorb information that must have shocked her to her very core.

Hours had gone by and still they talked, until he noticed her questions becoming fewer and her voice quieter. It wasn’t until she leaned against him as she drifted off to sleep that he noticed his arm around her.

Wiggling a little to adjust his position, he tucked his right wing beneath her so that her head rested near the joint, and stretched himself out so that he lay behind her, moving his arms around her waist. Her left hand rested on the feathers of the wing beneath her and she let out a sleepy “mmmm…..’s nice” as she drifted into sleep.

The couch was just wide enough for them both.

The wings. I’ve got to do something about them. He had the sudden thought to call Amenadiel and he sent up a silent prayer for his brother, not sure if it would be heard, even though he had regained his ability to freeze time. Lucifer prayed that some of his older brother’s other powers had returned as well.

Chloe was breathing evenly and slowly, fast asleep curled against him. He stretched his left wing and brought it gently down to cover them both, then leaned his face against her hair, breathing in the scent of her…..In a few seconds, he too was fast asleep.

______

 

Amenadiel arrived on Lucifer’s balcony just after 5:00 in the morning. He had heard Lucifer calling him and found to his delighted surprise that he could once more spread his dark wings, that somehow they had been renewed. It also surprised him that it was his brother he most wanted to share the sudden joy with……

He did not withdraw his wings as he entered the apartment and let the concomitant time delay continue. 

He was not quite sure what to expect when he noticed a lit lamp on the side table beside the mustard-coloured sofa, dim, but enough to allow him to make out the two figures asleep on it. He made his way inside and blinked with astonishment.

Chloe was curled with her back against Lucifer’s chest, his arms around her, pillowed on the glowing white of the devil’s right wing, the left stretched out to cover them both from the waist down. 

Lucifer started awake, instantly sensing the moment Chloe’s breathing and heart rate slowed almost to a stop. His eyes rested on his brother.

“Lucifer! You have your wings…………and, well…….”

“Yes, brother, your powers of observation are astute, as always. And, yes, Chloe knows….. She was here when I made it back--”

“Back? Back from where? What happened?”

“That’s what I’d like to know, brother. I went to see Linda…… I was leaving the hospital, left a message for Chloe to tell her I was on my way over, and then someone hit me……..hard enough to knock me out for hours.”

“Who? Who hit you, Lucifer?”

“Well, I was leaning towards you, brother, but I couldn’t quite think of a reason you’d clobber me then somehow haul me out to the desert and leave me there--”

“WHAT?”

“Woke up midday in a place as bloody hot as hell, no shoes, socks, shirt – burned too, blisters everywhere…….When I stood up to see where I was, well, there they were” he waggled a wing tip, “and here they are………and by the way, I could use a little help here!” he exclaimed as he tried to sit up, his right wing lifting Chloe’s sleeping form, so that she rested limply against his chest. Extricating the wing she had been resting on, he laid her gently on the couch and looked up at Amenadiel.

“OK, bro, do you think you could, you know, undo the time thingee? Chloe knows, she knows you’re a bloody angel, so it’s rather a moot point. And I actually want her to hear this conversation……”

“But, brother, it’s…….well--”

“Bloody decisive, as always, I see. Just do it, Amenadiel. Chloe has a right to know the whole truth. Whatever she decides to do with the knowledge, I do owe her that much. We’ve been talking all night, actually…..been filling her in on some, well, you know, pertinent details……Overall I’d say she’s taking it pretty well….”

Amenadiel looked his brother up and down, and in a moment Chloe was stirring awake with a whispered “Lucifer?”

“Yes, I’m right here,” he said as he helped her sit up. “Um, we have company at the moment, my brother is here…..”

Chloe wiped the sleep out of her eyes and looked sheepishly at Lucifer…….and his wings. It hadn’t been a dream.

“I’m….sorry. I must’ve dozed off. I was dreaming about being wrapped in feathers….it was……..nice…”

Lucifer looked at Amenadiel, “That’s what I wanted to see you about, brother. I, um, have a bit of problem, can’t seem to retract the wings……”

Amenadiel snorted “You just will them to vanish--”

“Yes, yes, I bloody well know that, you pratt,” Lucifer snapped. “I know how to do it, they just won’t bloody respond! I was hoping you could have a look……”

Amenadiel fixed him with an exasperated grimace, but walked behind the couch where his brother was sitting. Lucifer’s wings stretched along the back of the long sofa, as Amenadiel examined him.

He could see the problem immediately. The muscles between and underneath Lucifer’s wings were locked in spasm. It must have been quite uncomfortable.

Amenadiel put his hands over the point on Lucifer’s spine exactly between the bases of the snowy wings. Chloe swore she could see a faint blue light emanating from the angel’s hands. After a moment, they all heard the loud “pop” that drew a surprised yelp from Lucifer, followed by a happy smile. He could feel waves of electric energy moving up and down his spinal column and immediate relief from the spasming muscles. A satisfied sigh escaped him.

And in a twinkling the wings were simply gone.

“Thank you, brother!” he said with genuine relief.

Chloe was looking at him in astonishment, “What just happened? Where did your wings go?”

“That’s a bit difficult to explain,” Lucifer answered as she scrambled up and around the couch to look at his back.

“The scars…..those horrible scars….they’re gone……..but, but where did the wings go?” and she put a hand gently on the smooth skin where the dreadful marks had been, feeling a little tremor go through him at the touch.

“Oh, they’re still there, just not quite in this dimension any more – when I want them to appear, they will…….Let’s just say they are ‘out of phase’ with this particular plane of reality……I’m not sure I can really describe it any better……..”

Amenadiel was chuckling, “I guess you and the detec----I mean, Chloe, have a lot more to discuss,” he said as he watched her staring in fascination at the now-perfect skin on Lucifer’s back.

Lucifer chimed in happily, “It seems you have your healing powers back too, bro…….   
and that reminds me. We need to pay a visit to Linda. The doctors said she will recover, but if you can help speed that along, I think we both owe it to her. She might have to have skin grafts and that would be very painful……..

“It was our mum that hurt her, after all……..and,” his voice lowered to a whisper “I feel responsible for what mum did, I…..I should have known better,” he said softly.

“All right, brother, we’ll go see her this morning.”

“And I’m coming with you,” Chloe said firmly. “Linda told me to come back with Lucifer once I had ‘talked’ to him – this is obviously what she meant…..Of course it is – she knows!” 

Lucifer nodded. The fact that Linda knew gave Chloe a brief stab of, what, jealousy? Envy? She wasn’t sure, but it passed quickly, replaced by happiness that Lucifer had not been completely alone to deal with problems so monumental, and that there was someone that he could reach out to.

“Linda hinted that you were about to tell me a big secret of some kind.....and Maze is pretty pissed at you, said something about everything being your fault and she would kick your ass, or words to that effect……” Chloe smiled at him sweetly.

“Yes, well, thank you, Detective, perhaps we should have a police escort, how kind of you to offer……” he was grinning broadly. “There’s some very good dark roast in the kitchen cupboard if one of you could figure out how to work the coffee machine. I really must get cleaned up, I feel like grime personified, and I have grit in my hair. I was wondering how I was going to squeeze the wings into my shower! So thank you again, brother…..I am going to burn these trousers though,” the last over his shoulder as he padded to the master suite.

Chloe shook her head and headed for the kitchen. Coffee. I must have coffee. I’m going to have coffee with the devil himself and an angel. Could there be a stranger start to a day than that? 

She saw the espresso machine and next to it a regular coffee maker, opened the black cupboard above and found a large bag of beans and the grinder and set to work. She’d make this pot extra strong. Launch pad strong.

Amenadiel followed her into the kitchen.

“This must be very strange for you,” he said quietly as he watched her start the coffee.

“Ya think?” She looked at him askance. “What? Doesn’t everyone have a devil partner and his angel brother and a demon roommate?”

He couldn’t help but chuckle at her sarcasm. Chloe was indeed special and his little brother was very lucky. She didn’t seem to have lost her mind. Maybe Lucifer’s decision had been correct in regards to his beautiful detective…….In any event, it was too late now to worry about it.

By the time Lucifer emerged, dressed nattily in a black suit and dark maroon shirt, Chloe and Amenadiel were seated at the counter in the kitchen sipping their coffee.

“Ah, that certainly feels a lot more like it,” he said as Chloe gave him an appreciative once-over, then looked down at her own rumpled clothes.

“Come to think of it, a shower seems like a great idea before we head to the hospital. I suppose I should get back to my place and change……..” she said.

“Oh, one of us could easily ‘drop you off’ at your place,” offered Lucifer with a mischievous grin, “it’d be much quicker than driving. And quite a rush too!”

Chloe couldn’t help but laugh and almost snorted coffee out her nose, as she realized what he was offering. “Um, no, Lucifer, if it’s all the same to you, I don’t think I’m quite ready for that just yet—“

“Well, why don’t you shower here then, everything you need is in the master suite, clean towels in the cupboard……it’ll be faster this way. And, okay, we’ll DRIVE to the hospital if you’re too chicken to fly Air Lucifer…….” and he flashed her his signature grin.

This time Chloe did backwash coffee before saying “Lucifer, you might be an angel, but you’re still an ass!” She was chuckling as she made her way to the shower, wondering if this truly was the New Normal or if she was actually, really, truly going to wake up and find it had all been some bizarre dream.

____

By the time she got out of the shower, she felt a thousand per cent better, though she had been tempted to linger in it all day. Trust Lucifer to have the best shower in LA, she thought when she looked at the eight separate shower heads and the rather elaborate control panel that operated them. She selected only two heads in the end, but it was glorious nonetheless.

By the time she toweled herself off and shook out yesterday’s slept-in clothes, she felt truly refreshed. She dressed quickly and wrapped her wet hair in a towel and began to make her way through the bedroom to join the two brothers.

Raised voices made her pause and she caught Lucifer saying “---I had to, brother, don’t you get it? I didn’t choose the timing, she was here when I crash-landed on the balcony, so, as they say, ‘the cat was out of the bag’.”

“Did you tell her about her mother, about Dad putting her here on purpose?” she heard Amenadiel ask accusingly.

“I hadn’t gotten around to it yet, brother, but I’m going to. We had a lot to talk about and we still do. So Dad put her here, I don’t care any more. Telling her the truth, the WHOLE truth, gives her back her free will, her freedom of choice! I had to do that for her. If there’s to be anything between us…….if we keep working together, our friendship, or anything else that might happen, she has to know! It was something Linda said about ‘eyes being open’. I want Chloe’s eyes to be open, I want her to know ME, the real me, and that I trust her. And I do, brother. I trust her.”

Chloe chose that moment to make her presence known, “Any coffee left?” she asked brightly as she began to towel her hair and comb out the tangles with her fingers.

Amenadiel filled her cup and handed it to her. It was black and strong and delicious and she sipped appreciatively.

“Well, I’ll leave you two,” Amenadiel announced. “I need some time to work, I’ll see you both at the hospital. Wish me luck.”

Instead of heading for the elevator, the black angel walked calmly to the terrace, stepping around the broken pots from Lucifer’s awkward landing and walking straight towards the railing. Chloe heard a loud flapping sound, and the dark angel simply vanished. Upwards.

________

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 3 to follow but not for a couple of days. Hope you enjoyed this one.


	3. Chapter 3

“He’s FLYING to the hospital?” She looked at Lucifer.

“Faster that way, my dear – besides, my brother is simply an awful driver--”

Chloe laughed, “Pot meet Kettle – don’t forget, I’ve driven with you, you’re a madman on the road.”

Lucifer tried glaring at her, but he couldn’t quite manage it. Instead he offered to make breakfast before they left to see Linda and was slightly surprised when Chloe accepted.

Omelets it was and he set about getting them made while Chloe automatically put another pot of coffee on to brew. They were simple, a few mushrooms for filling and fresh herbs from the planter on his terrace, the one container that he hadn’t managed to smash to bits when he crash landed the night before.

They spoke little but the silence was companionable. Neither seemed to want to break the air of apparent normality that had settled over Lucifer’s kitchen. As he offered her a plate, she wrinkled her nose appreciatively and said “These smell wonderful,” then a moment later added “It’s nice having breakfast with you.”

“Well, if you recall, I have made breakfast for you before, you know--”

“Yes, but breaking into my house and raiding my fridge before being chased off doesn’t really count, does it, Lucifer – what I meant was, THIS is nice, actually sitting down and eating breakfast with you.”

Lucifer chuckled, “yes, I suppose there is a difference……I hope it’s a welcome one.”

“It is,” she said, smiling at him. “It feels almost normal….that is, if anything will ever feel ‘normal’ again, I’m not sure I know what normal is anymore….” Her voice trailed away, before she added “There’s a lot more, isn’t there?”

He nodded and then said “But we’ll take it as you’re ready. Ask me. I will answer as best as I can…..I, um, don’t want you to feel overwhelmed by…..well, any of it….”

“What did happen on the pier, Lucifer? I still can’t piece together how you and Charlotte got over that railing….”

“That was my brother’s doing. He has the power to slow down time on this plane. You were all sort of frozen for awhile. I got mum out of the way and, uh, dealt with her, before normal time resumed……

“Why don’t we wait before I tell you the rest? Linda and Amenadiel and Maze too, I suppose, they’ll all want to know….and I don’t fancy repeating myself over and over, so you may as well all hear it at the same time…..”

Chloe nodded, thinking of the incident the preceding year when she had been looking right at Lucifer and he had seemed to vanish, appearing in a nanosecond behind her….another little droplet of information falling into place.

“I must say, Det – Chloe, you seem to be taking this all extremely well…. I mean, considering…..” he gave her a broad smile. “You are the only human who has ever seen my wings, you know……well, at least when they’re attached to my body.”

“Right, because Maze cut them off when you left Hell…..”

“Exactly.”

Chloe took a sip of her coffee, looking at him with a level gaze. “Just why did you get her to cut them off?”

His face was thoughtful and serious and he took a few moments to answer her.

“I wanted to stick it to Dad, shoot him the celestial finger, reject him the way he rejected me. The wings were his ‘gifts’ to all of us. I thought cutting them off would really piss him off and, well……..I didn’t think it through all the way, as it turns out….” After a few moments, he added very softly “I am grateful for the new pair though….I hadn’t realized how much I missed them….”

Chloe decided she had enough information to chew on for awhile and suggested they head out. It had been an hour since Amenadiel had left and it would take them a good half hour to weave through morning traffic, though being a Saturday it shouldn’t be as frustrating as the weekday rush hour.

Lucifer walked out to the bar to collect his phone and keys from where Chloe had left them.

As he turned to follow her to the elevator, he noticed she was twirling her own car keys around a finger……”Don’t get any ideas, mister,” she told him, “I’m driving.”

______________

On the way to the hospital they were both silent, until Chloe asked “Your brother can heal people?”

“It is one of his talents, yes,” Lucifer answered simply. “The time thing is a kicker though…..makes it convenient when on assignment….”

“Assignment?” she glanced over to see him gazing out the window.

After awhile he said “Dad sometimes sends an angel to carry out a special assignment on earth, putting a word in someone’s ear, answering a prayer here and there, and Dad only knows what else……”

“What did your brother mean when he said ‘have you told her about her mother?’” Lucifer turned to look at her.

“You heard that, did you?”

“When I was coming out of the shower…….what did he mean?”

At his silence, she prompted him gently “No more secrets, remember?”

“Very well……..Before you came along, your mother had difficulty conceiving, yes?”

“She did. When I was little she always called me her miracle child. She had some kind of infection when she was younger and the doctors told her she’d never be able to have a child of her own……She said it was the only time in her life that she ever prayed for anything, that she and my dad really wanted a child…..”

“Father answered her prayer,” he said softly. “He sent Amenadiel to earth to bless your mum so that she could have a baby. You. He put you here, Chloe…..” He paused before continuing.

“The day you got poisoned, that’s when I found out. My dear Mother told me that Dad put you here on purpose. To manipulate me. To…..well, I don’t know what, but to use you against me in some way. I – I was upset…….”

“That’s what you were yelling about when you came to get me, ‘did you know?’ You thought I was some kind of, what, secret weapon? That God was manipulating me in order to hurt you?............Is that why you ran away?”

“Partly,” he answered quietly, the pain of the memory was fresh and he knew he could not tell her the whole truth. Not yet.

“I needed to get away, to think, to figure things out. And I needed to know what my Mother was planning……So I went to Las Vegas for awhile…….”

“And came back with Candy,” she couldn’t quite keep the bitterness out of her voice, despite her best attempt.

“Yes. Candy owed me a favour, I, um, helped her out with a rather sticky situation involving the Vegas mob. She isn’t actually a dumb bimbo, she’s really quite clever. Actress, actually, not a stripper…..for what it’s worth.”

He resumed staring out the window, then added, “I didn’t know how much it would hurt you until I saw your face. And I’m truly sorry for that……” He wanted to take her hand in his, but both of hers were gripping the steering wheel, perhaps just a little tighter than was necessary.

“And you couldn’t trust me,” she said “because you thought I was put here to hurt you…..”

“Yes, that’s about the gist of it……But I really needed to figure out what Mum was planning, and Candy helped me do it…..” he said as Chloe pulled into the parking lot at LA Memorial.

____

 

When they got to the ICU, they found Amenadiel talking to Maze in the waiting room, behind them a hubbub of activity, doctors and nurses hurrying in and out of Linda’s room.

At Lucifer’s quirked eyebrow, Amenadiel just nodded and smiled, then whispered “I got interrupted by the staff, they chased me out here….Seems my handiwork has created a bit of a stir. I did manage to heal the worst of the burns on her arms and legs. I was just starting to work on the stab wound when they, uh, caught me ‘blue-handed’ – it should be enough to speed things up though. She’ll be okay--”

He was cut off by one of the doctors in an overly loud voice saying “I don’t care! It’s not medically possible! She had third-degree burns! They just couldn’t have healed overnight, I’m telling you,” he was almost shouting as he walked down the hall. “I want to know what the hell is going on here……..and get her to another room,” he snapped at the unit clerk and the nurse that was following him. “Intensive Care is for people who need it!” 

They watched him stalk away, shaking his head as he scanned the chart he was carrying.

Maze was staring at Lucifer, who returned the look angrily. It was obvious she hadn’t gotten over her current hate-on for him. Amenadiel noticed it too and took her by the elbow, “Come on,” he said, “let’s go to the cafeteria and get some coffee. I need to talk to you about something.” She shot Lucifer a look, but let Amenadiel lead her to the elevator.

It was before official visiting hours, but Chloe flashed the unit clerk her police ID and said “We just need a few minutes with Dr. Martin, seems she’s doing a lot better today. I’m so glad to hear it.” The clerk just nodded, phone on one ear as she tried to find Linda a private room and get the ICU cleared for the next urgent patient.

Linda beamed at the pair. In truth, she looked amazing. The bandages were gone from her arms and presumably her legs as well, though she had a sheet pulled halfway up her torso.

“Seems I’m a bit of a medical miracle, thanks to your brother.” She grinned at Lucifer, who bent down and kissed her forehead.

“You sure look a lot better than you did on Thursday,” Chloe said, smiling happily.

“I imagine so,” Linda laughed. Gone was the IV and the nasal oxygen tube. “Look at this,” she added, throwing the sheet back to reveal her legs. “Even the knife wound is almost completely gone, still hurts a bit, but only a little………It’s pretty amazing…”

“I’m so glad, Linda,” Lucifer grinned at her. “Amenadiel said you’ll be fine now.”

“They are moving me to another room, there’s people who need the ICU more than I do. Not sure how long it will take…..” She looked at Lucifer, then said “Would you mind leaving Chloe and I alone to talk for a bit?”

He shot her a puzzled glance, then nodded. “I’ll go find my brother and Maze. I’ve got a few questions for her that need some answering.”

When they were alone, Linda gave Chloe a long glance. “So?” was all she said.

“Yes, he told me.”

Linda was beaming. “You took it a lot better than I did, I was scared shitless when I saw his devil face……”

Chloe looked at her and said “His devil face? What do you mean?”

“You know, red, burned………wait, he didn’t show you?”

“Not that, no. I saw his wings…..”

Linda was flabbergasted. “Wings? He has wings again? Those scars, he told me he had Maze cut them off when they first got here….”

“Well, they grew back or something, cuz he definitely has wings…..Last night, I went over to LUX to look for him. Had the techs ping his phone, it was there…found his car in the parking lot, half his clothes and his shoes were in the trunk. It was looking pretty suspicious so I went up to the penthouse to have a look around…..” She had a faraway look before she continued.

“He’d been gone for two days at that point. I don’t know why I went over at that particular time, but I heard this giant crash on the balcony and there he was, wings and all. He said someone hit him over the head and then dumped him in the desert.” She started to giggle, not being able to help herself, “When he woke up, the wings were back….he figured he was in the Sonoran Desert…..Flew back, no less……Let’s just say it was quite the sight….”

Linda was smiling at her.

“We talked all night, must’ve been 4:00 a.m. and I fell asleep. And then Amenadiel arrived, seems he’s got wings too……He said something about regaining his powers after losing them. I wasn’t following it much at that point, he said something about bringing Malcolm Graham back from the dead. From Hell in fact,” Chloe couldn’t believe she heard what her voice was saying. “Seems their father was pissed at him for that….”

“How much did Lucifer tell you?”

“Well, he mostly answered my questions…..about all the weird stuff that seems to happen when he’s around. I realize how crazy I sound, but it all makes an odd kind of sense now. I just wish he had told me before…..”

“He was afraid to, Chloe. Afraid that he would scare you, that you would hate him…..”

“He’s the devil, Linda. I don’t suppose he’s ever been afraid of anything.”

“You’re so wrong,” the doctor said softly, then “Did he tell you what happened the day you were poisoned? How he got that antidote for you?” 

And the good doctor told the detective all she could remember about that day and exactly the way Lucifer went to Hell to get her the antidote…..

When she had finished, Chloe could only stare at her with mouth agape.

Linda looked at her with gentle understanding. “Be patient with him, Chloe. He cares about you, very deeply, I think more deeply than even he knows……”

Chloe was about to say something, but two nurses arrived, one with a wheelchair, the other chirping, “Well, doc, we have a private room for you three floors down. Everybody is talking about you, you’re Dr. Miracle! The whole hospital is buzzing!” and continued chattering as she helped Linda up and into the wheelchair.

“I’ll go find the guys,” Chloe said as they wheeled Linda towards the elevator.  
______

Lucifer had found his way to the cafeteria and saw Maze and Amenadiel sitting at a table in the corner. There were a few people there, some having a late breakfast, mostly hospital staff, the odd mobile patient and a few presumably visitors. He grabbed a coffee, surprised when he tasted it and found it passable.

He sat down with them and looked at Maze.

“Oh, Mazy, dear, I have a couple of questions for you,” noting the guilty shift of her eyes to the left.

“I can see you belting me with a bloody kosh, but how the hell did you get me out to the Sonoran Desert?” he said sweetly, the undertone of anger more than clear in his low voice.

“Desert? What are you talking about?” she managed to look genuinely confused.

“Now Maze. Don’t start lying to me now….Wednesday night. I was leaving here and heading to my car. ‘Someone’” (glaring at her) “hit me so hard it was lights out. I woke up the next day half naked in the buggering desert. What I would really like to know is how you got me out there. Even the crazy way you drive, hundreds of miles there and back isn’t possible, and there were no roads anywhere near where I was. So start talking.”

“I didn’t take you to the desert!” Maze said, perhaps a little too loudly, then noticed that all the other people in the cafeteria were frozen or moving very, very slowly.

Lucifer nodded at his brother. Probably a good idea to not be overheard.

“OK. I did hit you. As hard as I could. I took your jacket and shirt off and your shoes. I was going to leave you there stark naked so you’d get hauled off to jail, but I thought I’d leave you a little dignity. I dragged you into the bushes, put your stuff in the trunk and drove the Corvette back to LUX.

“Left the keys in the ignition too. It’d serve you right if someone stole it while you were unconscious….When I got back here you were nowhere to be seen. Figured you buggered off home…..When no one could get in touch with you, I just thought you pulled another runner……you’re pretty good at that these days,” she finished sarcastically.

“So, you’re saying YOU did not take me out to the desert and leave me there with no means of getting back, no phone, nothing?”

“I am telling you the truth, Lucifer. Yeah, I hit you. I was pissed, okay? Linda was in such a bad way and she was forgiving you! It made me so angry…..

“Wait a minute, if I didn’t do it,” (she looked at Amenadiel, who sat there shaking his head), “then who did?”

None of them noticed the nurse in dark blue scrubs who wasn’t really frozen, but stood staring at the wall unblinking, an amused smile on her face.

Amenadiel let time resume its normal flow, and the nurse walked away, passing Chloe as she entered the cafeteria, an unreadable expression on her face. 

Chloe beckoned the three of them. “They’ve put Linda in a private room on the second floor, we can go talk to her now.”

_____

When Lucifer finished his account of what happened on the Santa Monica pier three days before, Amenadiel had tears in his eyes, and he actually grabbed his brother in a bear hug, much to Lucifer’s consternation and a smirk from Maze. “I’m so glad you didn’t destroy her, Luci….”

Chloe made a welcome interruption by asking “What would have happened if Hector Ruiz had shot her?”

“We all would’ve been blown sky high, literally,” Lucifer answered, “along with, who knows, maybe half of LA.

“It was something you said to me, Chloe, about going backwards not being good for anyone…..At least this way mum gets to survive, and the Silver City won’t be destroyed.”

“What did you do with the Sword?” Maze and Amenadiel asked simultaneously.

“I tossed it into the rift after her……..but not before I removed this,” he said reaching into his pocket and pulling out the spike that had formed his brother’s necklace. “Don’t worry, she won’t be able to split any dimensions without this,” and he handed the piece to his brother. “Thought you’d want this back, bro,” he said with a smile, “it was a gift, after all.”

Amenadiel gave Lucifer an astonished look and made as if to hug him again, but Lucifer stepped adroitly aside, “Come now, bro, we’ve had enough brotherly bloody love for one day.”

Linda interjected, “What I don’t understand is how could the real Charlotte Richards be back in her body?”

“That’s what I’d like to know too,” Chloe added. “I mean, Charlotte was dead, right? Otherwise your mother couldn’t have…. occupied her…….Where’s her, um, soul been all this time? I mean, wouldn’t she have gone, well, up or down when she died? Am I making sense?”

“That’s actually a very good question,” Lucifer said thoughtfully, “and one I don’t know the answer to…..The only thing I can think of is that Charlotte was still barely alive when mum took possession. Maybe the goddess energy held Charlotte in place the whole time. I’m just guessing here, because I really don’t know why Charlotte, the real Charlotte, is still alive. Shocked me when she sat up on the beach. She should be dead. And yet she’s not. More of Dad’s mysterious ways, I guess…..”

“So what are we going to do about it?” Chloe asked.

“I won’t press charges,” Linda offered. “After all, technically it wasn’t Charlotte who attacked me….”

“Doesn’t matter. It was a violent crime, her prints were everywhere in your office, in your blood, I might add. It looks open and shut with or without you. The department will lay charges once her psych eval is complete, whether you want to press charges or not. She did very nearly kill you….”

“Doesn’t seem fair though,” Linda insisted. “Not that I have a whole lot of sympathy for lawyers in general, but it wasn’t actually her. She can’t be held responsible if she was possessed!”

“Yeah, but how are we going to explain this to the court? It’s not like we can actually tell the truth, can we….I may not like the woman, but I’m judging her on what Lucifer’s mother did……She tried to kill me, twice even,” Chloe pinched the bridge of her nose. “But you’re right, we can’t let her take the rap for it, no matter what kind of sleazy cokehead attorney she is. She didn’t do it.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay getting this posted. So many unexpected things happening, but that's life, isn't it? This one got out of hand in length, so I've split it into two chapters. Next will be up by tomorrow!

Lucifer sat on the terrace, a tumbler of scotch on the table beside him. He took a long drag of the black cigarette in his hand. 

The scotch was the finest in his collection, The Macallan 55 and he sipped it appreciatively. He knew it had cost a very pretty penny, but he hadn’t paid for it himself, of course. A very rich man had owed him a very big favour and the fine liquor in its Rene Lalique decanter went a long way to erasing that debt. It was the first time he had savoured it since the day it had come into his possession. He had offered this particular scotch to no one (“too good to share,” as the humans sometimes said).

But he had the sudden desire to share it with Chloe. He would most certainly offer her some the next time she came over. If there was a next time.

After they had left Linda, Chloe had driven him back to LUX, but begged off returning to the penthouse with him.

“Lucifer, I’ve had like one hour’s sleep in about the last million days. I have to go home and go to bed, there isn’t enough coffee in LA to keep me awake……if I keep drinking it I’ll only get a blinding headache.” She had put her hand on his arm reassuringly and promised she would call him when she woke up. She wasn’t brushing him off, he knew she was tired and, well, he had surprised her, to say the least.

“Lucifer,” she called as he turned to walk away, “I just need a little time to think, you know? All this, it’s been, um, so, well, surreal…. Is that the right word? Do you understand? I’m not running away, I just have to think and get some sleep. Ok?” She looked up at him with a serious expression. 

He had smiled at her, a bit of a rueful smile, she thought, but nodded. “Of course, Detective, of course. Take all the time you need. You know where to find me.”

Once in the penthouse, he had noted the broken pots and scattered plants on the terrace. It was Saturday, the cleaning staff were off, then he remembered that since the club had been closed for a month, there actually was no cleaning staff to speak of.

Pouring himself a tumbler of water, he went to find something to clean up the mess with. The largest six plants had survived, being almost pot-pound and he simply stood them up, thinking he’d have someone replace the containers in the next couple of days. There were three or four more that hadn’t fared so well, so were simply swept with the broken debris out of the way of bare feet.

He decided he would do nothing, nothing at all for the rest of the day. Except perhaps think. 

In less than a week, not even five full days, in fact, he had helped solve a murder, again prevented his mother from killing his detective (and Father only knows how many other people), and had dealt with her in what he hoped would turn out to be the best way, by ripping a bloody hole in reality itself. Only to have his head bashed, and waking up in the desert with a new pair of wings…… and then Chloe…. Bloody hell! 

Two more days to go, he thought grimly, before kicking off his shoes and shedding his suit jacket. He shuddered to think what else could bloody well happen.

He spent the rest of the day lost in his thoughts, but coming to one very definite conclusion. 

He would let Chloe set the pace of anything that happened between them now. He would not try and charm her or interfere in any way. If she asked him questions, he would answer them. If she wanted to spend time with him, he would make himself available. But he would not pester her with innuendo, he would be patient and let her decide how it would go from here. It certainly was not what he wanted to do. But he knew it was what he had to do, both for her freedom of choice and for his own peace of mind.

He poured himself another finger of the Macallan, then put the decanter away. His thoughts lingered for a moment on Charlotte Richards, then turned to the puzzle of who had dropped him in the Sonoran Desert…….  
__________

Chloe was grateful to arrive at home in one piece. With only an hour’s sleep, she could not be sure that she wasn’t an actual danger on the road.

But the drive was uneventful and she was grateful for that, not certain if her reflexes would have worked well enough if it had not been. She was bone tired and a mental mess, random thoughts revolving in a brain that desperately needed to sleep. 

She could not recall any time when she had felt this tired and she knew it was all to do with Lucifer. He had become this presence in her life, disrupting all she thought of as normal, a random agent of chaos, always somehow at the centre of whatever bizarre circus was happening. 

Trust him not to just be ‘AN angel’ – he had of course to be THAT angel, the one that rebelled against God, the Ruler of Hell (“former ruler,” she heard his voice in her head), the Adversary, the one who ignored the rules, did what he wished and was generally a royal Pain in the Ass. Of course.

She rolled her eyes skyward, and realized how often she had made the gesture since she met him. I don’t remember even doing this before I met YOU…..

She wandered aimlessly into the kitchen, opened the fridge and looked inside, not sure what she really wanted or if she really wanted anything. After a frozen moment, she grabbed a bottle of water and made what seemed like the endless climb up to her bedroom. 

I could sleep for a week, she thought as she peeled off her clothes, leaving a trail of items on the floor between the door and the bed. She set her phone and the water bottle on the night stand, reached for her oversized comfy sleep shirt and crawled under the duvet. By the time she had fluffed her favourite pillow to the correct shape, she was asleep before her head had even touched it……

She dreamed again of being enfolded in soft white feathers, the dream-feeling interspersed with visions of Lucifer standing on a flat-topped mesa, glowing wings spread out behind him, as he looked up at an ink-black sky filled with stars.

 

__________

The work week began tediously. How can there be so much damned paperwork? Chloe thought disgustedly as she looked at the pile on her desk.

There was a message waiting on her desk from the Psych Unit at Beth Israel. Returning the call, she was informed by the attending physician that Charlotte had requested a voluntary 30-day psychiatric stay, on the advice of her own legal firm, and would not be making any statements or talking to any police officers for the foreseeable future. Par for the course, Chloe thought as she hung up. But maybe that’s all for the better.

There was so much evidence against her, carefully catalogued by Ella and the forensics team. Once they were able to charge her, Chloe could see no way that the Richards woman would not be in custody for years, whether in prison or in a criminal psychiatric facility. It bothered her, but there was no way they could tell Ella (or Dan) the truth.

She pinched the bridge of her nose and then caught sight of Lucifer as he made his way through the morning throng to her desk, a big smile on his face.

“You look terribly bored – and I can see why, judging by that pile in front of you. Would you like to escape for an hour or two?” At her raised eyebrow he continued “They are discharging Linda today, so I volunteered to take her home. Why don’t you come with?”

She looked at the pile in front of her, obviously undecided. “Come on,” he said, “I’ll even help you with that hellish pile when we get back….”

Chloe couldn’t help her jaw dropping a little. It was the very first time her devil-partner had ever offered to help with paperwork. “Mister, you’ve got a deal!” She grabbed her purse and followed him to the elevator.

When they reached the police parking lot, Chloe was about to suggest they take her car, but was shocked to see Lucifer heading towards a silver-grey ’65 Mercedes-Benz, the 220SE model. It too was a convertible but a four-seater with white leather interior. Like the Corvette, it was in immaculate condition. “Did you get a new car? I thought you always drive the Corvette?”

“I do, usually, but I have several vehicles – since I was hoping to lure you away from your desk, but NOT into driving, I thought I’d use this one today. Haven’t had it out since last year…….”

Chloe noticed a very large basket in the back seat, wrapped in red cellophane and tied with a huge silver bow. At her raised eyebrow, Lucifer said “A bit of a ‘welcome home’ for Linda, I don’t suppose she’s had the time to shop this last week……some wine, some fruit, cheese, pate, crackers, a few bickies and some chocolate – she won’t have to cook unless she wants to. I, uh, well………I just wanted to do something nice for her.”

Chloe smiled at him and did not argue about him driving, though she regretted it almost immediately as he pulled out into traffic far too quickly. Some things never change, she thought, but kept it to herself.

Linda was waiting at the admission desk looking rather less than stellar in a pair of sweat pants and a very over-sized man’s sweat shirt, “I had to pick these up at the hospital thrift shop,” she explained, “since the police took the clothes I was wearing – not that a blood-stained suit would have worked either,” she chuckled, “now, can we please get out of here before too many people see me dressed like this?” 

Lucifer offered an arm and the three headed out. Linda’s condo was not all that far from LA Memorial and the drive was quick. For once, Lucifer drove carefully and followed all the traffic laws. 

Linda’s place was on the small side, but very comfortably furnished with an open-concept design and plenty of light. Chloe decided it was much like the doctor herself and said so.

Linda smiled when Lucifer plunked the gift basket on her coffee table and thanked him for this thoughtfulness, “It’s a bit unexpected, but that’s very sweet of you….”

“Well, you could use a little spoiling, I think, considering the rather nasty week you’ve had--”

“And you, so I understand. So, can I see them?” 

It took Lucifer a moment to realize what she was talking about, before he chuckled, “Well, that might be a bit destructive in your home, doctor! Is a rain check ok with you?”

They all laughed. “Don’t think I won’t hold you to THAT, Lucifer!” she said, then “How do you feel about them? You told me once that only your father could bestow wings….you said you burned your original pair to piss him off…. so, well, tell! How did you get these?”

“When I woke up in cactus land, there they were in all their glory. Just like that. I don’t know if they just grew back or if Dad gave me the old ‘zap’ – they are identical to the ones I burned…..I, um, well, actually, I wanted to be angry…..but…..okay, doctor, I said ‘thank you, Dad’ – are you happy now?”

Linda was beaming at him approvingly. “There, was that so hard? Besides, from what you told me, walking out of the Sonoran Desert in bare feet would have been a bit difficult, so they did in fact come in handy……..maybe they will again.

“Now let’s open some of these goodies you brought – we may as well have lunch at least, since you’re both here – it may be a stereotype, but hospital food really sucks and I could really use …..ooooooh!” (She was ripping open the cellophane) “Some of this cognac pate, oh and camembert – did you know that was my favourite? Chloe, there’s plates in the cupboard to the right of the stove, if you wouldn’t mind…….Now, who wants a glass of this lovely wine?” she asked, perusing the label on the vintage St. Emilion Lucifer had included….

“And where is Maze today?” Linda asked through a mouthful of camembert. I haven’t seen her since your brother fixed me up……”

“I haven’t seen her either,” Lucifer replied, “I get the distinct impression she’s still a tad angry with me. She’ll get over it eventually, at least I think she will….” 

They both turned to look at Chloe.

“Maze came home yesterday, but honestly I was still half asleep and wandering around like a zombie. She muttered something about going on a hunt. She had some weird gear with her and a big leather bag……..I dunno, must’ve been around 2:00 yesterday afternoon. Haven’t seen her since. I don’t think she came home last night either, at least I didn’t hear anything….but I was pretty dead to the world……..and she seemed to be in a hurry.”

Lucifer could not help but feel a twinge of……something. He looked at the two women, his demeanor serious.

“Ladies, I’d like to ask you a favour, if you don’t mind. Can you, uh, keep a lid on the fact that I have my wings back? Amenadiel and you two are the only ones who know. I’d like to keep it that way for awhile…….Let me be the one to tell Maze, yeah?”

Chloe and Linda looked at each other and then at Lucifer. They both nodded.

 

_________

Back at the precinct a couple of hours later, Lucifer was as good as his word, though he ogled the pile of files with great distaste.

“You may as well pull up a comfy chair, partner,” Chloe looked at him. “If we work fast we may just get out of here by 5:00.” Lucifer looked disheartened, but he had made a deal, so he tried not to look as horribly bored as he felt, while Chloe instructed him on the proper paperwork procedures.

When Dan walked by a couple of hours later, he actually did a double-take. “Did hell freeze over and no one told me?” he said loudly as he approached from behind Lucifer. “Or does Lucifer have an identical twin brother? Because one or the other must be true…..”

“Subtle as always, I see, Detective Espinoza. Just doing my share to help,” he intoned sweetly.

“Since when?” Dan answered with a laugh.

“Actually,” Chloe interrupted, “I’m assuming he’s plotting something devious. He’s actually been really quite helpful today…….but you’re right, Dan. Hell HAS probably frozen over,” she smiled at Lucifer, who gave her a secret little wink.

“Hey, just on my way to pick up Trix up at your mom’s……..I’ll take her for a bite of dinner and drop her at home later with her stuff, ok? Looks like you might just finish up early this aft--”

“Thanks, Dan, with any luck we’ll be outta here in an hour or so. Maybe Lucifer and I can grab a bite when we’re done and then I’ll head home….around 7:00? 7:30?”

Dan nodded and left the two to finish the mound of paperwork that had already diminished considerably.

“Did you just invite me to dinner?” Lucifer asked brightly, quirking his eyebrow in his partner’s direction.

“Yes, why not? You’ve been exceptionally thoughtful today, which makes me downright suspicious,” she tried glaring at him, not quite able to manage a stern glance, then laughed. “I’m actually just feeling way too lazy to cook, Trixie comes home from her dad’s tonight and, you heard him, he’s taking her for dinner…….so, what do you say we finish this crap and go get something to eat?”

She took his grin as agreement.

_______

After dinner, they took their leave of each other, Chloe to welcome her daughter home for the week, and Lucifer back to his penthouse.

After pouring himself two fingers of scotch, he mentally called for his brother. He had a growing sense of, not exactly dread, but the sure feeling that something was not right.

He could not help but dwell on the problem of who had carried him out to the desert and why. He had been puzzling over it for days. 

It was not Maze and not Amenadiel, he was sure of both. Their other brothers and sisters rarely came earth-side, unless sent by Dad, and Lucifer was almost certain it was not his Father who carried him off. It just wasn’t the All Mighty’s style. Though anything (well, everything) was possible, he mused. 

Then again, why carry me all the way out there and leave me to rot, then give me wings so I could fly home? No, it wouldn’t have been Dad.

He wondered if Azrael had been stewing about her blade being thrown into another dimension. Ripping a hole in space-time, after all, would definitely have caught the attention of the Most High, especially as it was his Goddess Wife that stepped into the rift. And Azrael surely must be aware by now of the fate of her cherished weapon……….then again, it had only been a few hours later, and surely, surely she could not have arrived on earth that quickly, it would have taken at least a little time before the whole Host was aware of what he had done. Gossip simply doesn’t travel quite that fast, even in the Silver City……

His internal dialogue ceased when he heard the whoosh as Amenadiel landed gracefully on the terrace. 

“Thanks for coming, brother.” He noted the piece that rejoined the Flaming Sword was now back on its chain around Amenadiel’s neck.

The angel looked at him. “So, have you figured out who it was that dropped you in the desert?”

“That’s what I wanted to discuss with you…..If you’re willing, I have an assignment for you, bro…..”


	5. Chapter 5

Amenadiel returned to the penthouse the next afternoon.

“Sorry, brother,” he told Lucifer. “I’ve had no luck, none at all.”

Lucifer chewed on this for a moment. He had asked his elder brother to contact some of their brethren in the Silver City – he knew Dad wouldn’t answer, but thought some of their siblings might have an inkling as to who else was on the earth-plane.

“I called for Gabriel first, nothing…..I tried Raphael, also nothing….Hey, I even tried to get in touch with Azrael,” Lucifer shot him a look “but even she didn’t answer me. It’s like the Silver City isn’t even there….Have you tried too?”

“Of course I have, bro,” he said with a sigh. “You know the buggers never answer me – you’re the only one who’s ever answered when I make the Call…….”

“Luci, I even tried Dad, thanked him for giving me back my powers and, well, for the wings, but you know how Dad is………seems like it’s always radio silence with him. I don’t know what else to tell you, brother. I’ll keep trying, but whoever it is that’s here, it seems that our brethren don’t want us to know about it…..”

“Looks like it’s just you and me this time……..” Lucifer said as he poured them each a stiff drink.

“What about Maze?”

“What about her?” Lucifer replied. “No one has seen her in days. She told Chloe she was off on a ‘hunt’ – that’s all we know. She hasn’t even checked in on Linda…

“By the way, bro, don’t tell her about my wings. You can show yours off all you want, but I’d rather keep mine under wraps, if it’s all the same to you….”

“Are you saying you don’t TRUST Maze???”

“I trust her, brother. I do. Mostly.” Lucifer looked thoughtful. “Call it instinct,” he said quietly, “It’s just a ‘feeling’” (he laughed) “but I would really like to keep it to myself for the moment, at least until I find out who dropped me into the desert.”

“You think it’s one of our brothers or sisters, don’t you?”

“There were no roads where I was, and trust me, brother, I had plenty of time to look around – there were no tracks, nothing, for miles and miles. And unless a bloody helicopter plucked me from the hospital parking lot and flew me away, it had to be someone with wings, someone strong enough to carry me for hundreds of miles……..”

_____________

 

The week passed uneventfully, a rather boring week for cases, everyone at the LAPD was glad for that.

Oh, there had been a murder or two, not the fascinating odd kind, but rather mundane as far as murders go. An argument over a woman that had gone much too far. A shooting. A stabbing at a night club. A robbery gone horribly wrong. All the perps caught within hours and not one case that required much effort on Chloe’s or Lucifer’s part, not even a good interrogation to enjoy…….

Lucifer’s particular talents were not required at the moment. He knew if he was needed that Chloe would call him. He spent a day or two assessing the damage to the club and deciding what to do about LUX itself. It hurt seeing the men remove the shattered remnants of the Steinway. It looked like a wrecking ball had been dropped on it. The workmen exchanged suspicious glances as they worked, but Lucifer just ignored them. 

What a shame, he thought to himself, remembering the hours of pleasure he had gotten from the hand-crafted instrument in the years LUX had been in operation. 

He wasn’t sure he would replace it, wasn’t sure what to do even with the nightclub itself. He missed the club in fleeting ways, it had always been a wonderful distraction, but it was only a temporary feeling, the loss of something that had become a familiar daily habit….

Yet it did not bother him overly much. He had taken to spending a good bit of time alone since his adventure in the desert and found it, instead of disturbing, somehow almost comforting. Solitude had never really been his thing, he always preferred company, distraction, commotion, music, drink, drugs, dancing, fucking…..

None of that really seemed to matter any more.

__________

Trixie had flown home mid-week from a play day with her new best friend, a girl her age, named Carlie, that she had grown close to. She was babbling with enthusiasm, as Carlie’s parents had invited her to go with them for two weeks to a mountain cabin they had rented at Big Bear Lake in the San Bernardino National Park. It was near Sugarloaf Mountain and there were a million things for kids on vacation to do, as Trixie prattled on and on and on about it.

“Mum, there’s horseback riding!!!!! And the cabin is right on the lake, there’s all kinds of stuff to do! They even have a boat too! Can I? Can I? Can I please go……..  
pleeeeaaaaaaassseee????”

It was an onslaught, no doubt about it. Chloe laughed at her daughter and said “Ok, monkey, Carlie’s parents seem nice--” She had met them at a parent-teacher gathering earlier in the school year. They were a few years younger than she, with three children, Carlie and a set of twin boys a year her junior. They seemed a happy and open couple and told her they were glad that Trixie had befriended their daughter.

“Oh they are, mum, they are really nice. I don’t even mind Carlie’s little brothers, they’re gross ‘cuz they’re boys, but they’re okay….”

“Ok, ok, you can stop the sales pitch!” Chloe laughed at Trixie’s excitement. “I’ll give Carlie’s mom a call, and then let your dad know. I’m sure we can all work something out--” she was cut off as Trixie hurled herself across the room and wrapped her in a squeezing hug. Her little face was beaming.

After five minutes of mom-to-mom, it was agreed, with laughter all around. Judging from the noise behind Carlie’s mother in the background, Trixie’s counterpart was just as excited as she was……..

__________________

“Hey, Dan,” Ella shouted across the bullpen, waving him over. It was Friday, his normal weekend with Trixie, but he had agreed with Chloe that they couldn’t turn down their little one’s wish to go off to the mountain cabin with her new bestie.

“Yeah, El, what can I do for you?”

“Um, listen, I know your kid’s off on vacation so you’ve got the weekend off – one of my crazy brothers is in town from Detroit. Supposed to meet them later for beer and tequila……..wanna come along? You look like you need to blow off a little steam. I warn you though, the Lopez family is actually pretty crazy…….my visiting brother’s nickname is Loco Lopez……”

Dan laughed. He had spent much of the week doing most of the leg work on the few murder cases they’d had and, time permitting, had given what assistance he could to Ella and her team.

“Hey, man, I know you’re still smarting from Charlotte Richards,” she said, “I get it, I totally, totally get it – if some guy I’d slept with pretended to forget about it, it would piss me off, you bet it would!”

Dan gave a rueful chuckle. “Am I that transparent? I like to think I’m mature enough to handle rejection without being a baby about it…..”

“I get it,” Ella looked at him. “So, hey, why don’t you come with me? We’ll probably get really drunk and do stupid things……..but hey, I grew up in Detroit, that’s normal for us……”

Dan thought for a moment and then said “Why not? It’s the first Friday night I haven’t had Trixie in months….” His self-esteem had taken a bit of a hit from Charlotte’s brush-off on the beach. Mere minutes before, when she had kissed him in the arcade and told him “You are my favourite human,” he had felt partly thrilled and partly ashamed of himself for it. His lower emotional instinct was to want a bit of revenge. But another part realized he was just reacting to what seemed like a game of ‘come here, go away’ and he had to admit, if she was a whack job in some real mental health crisis, perhaps his resentment, no matter how genuine, was misplaced. 

The being Lucifer’s step-mom act still irked him though. There had to be a connection there. Lucifer and Chloe were cagey whenever he tried to broach the subject, and that too puzzled him. 

Chloe had always been open about her distaste for the former-cop-turned-attorney. At first Dan assumed it was because she thought Lucifer had had a sexual liaison with her, but then there was the cockamamie story of her being married to Lucifer’s father. 

She had in fact been married once before her current husband of twelve years and she was in her mid-forties. But when Dan checked her story, her first husband had been a real estate agent on his second marriage and, though he was twenty years Charlotte’s senior and certainly old enough to have been Lucifer’s father, he had no children, at least none on record. 

Every time Dan tried to ask Lucifer about it, he had been met either with a sarcastic diversion or the sudden interruption of a suspiciously important call…….Yet Lucifer had called her “mum” and that little iota stayed in Dan’s mind whenever he thought of her.

Regardless of his feelings and Chloe’s reticence to discuss the woman, Ella Lopez and her team had assembled every last bit of physical evidence they had regarding Linda Martin’s attack at the hands of Charlotte Richards, and there was a lot of it – parts of the rug from the doctor’s office, Charlotte’s spiked footprints clear, the letter opener she had wielded covered in Linda’s blood and the lawyer’s own prints, more prints in blood lifted off the walls and door handles, the bloody clothing Linda had been wearing and various splatters and sprays from around the office – all bagged and tagged along with photographic documentation and analyses of it all. Ella had kept the evidence in one huge container, the chain continuous and uncontestable.

Only she and the officer in charge of the secure evidence room were allowed near it. They had finally managed to lay charges and her lawyers had entered the plea “not guilty by reason of mental illness or deficiency.” The first evidentiary hearing was in three days, on Monday.

“We’ve got her dead to rights, Dan,” Ella told him, still bristling from Charlotte’s overt manipulation of him.

Dan helped her load the heavy box on a dolly and they went together to the evidence lock-up. Ella was strictly by-the-book on it, watching as the officer on duty locked it away and punched in the code that sealed the unit. 

Satisfied, she thanked him, grabbed Dan by the arm and said “Well, we’re ready for Monday morning. Now let’s get out of here, we’ve got some serious drinking to do!” 

After the shift change, no one noticed that the usual janitor had been replaced by a different man. No one noticed because he did exactly the same things the other man did, in exactly the same way, his timing a perfect replica of the one he had replaced. He worked efficiently, emptying the trash baskets, cleaning one area then moving on to the next. 

Except tonight he had added an extra stop on his rounds. All he had to do was wait for one particular officer to take his evening break. After that, he would only need a few minutes.

________

 

That afternoon Lucifer had invited Chloe for dinner, and she had accepted gratefully. She was already missing Trixie, even though she would have been at her dad’s for the weekend, but seeing her off last night had been hard. Two weeks could seem like a very long time.

“Let me prepare something for you,” Lucifer said to her. “You’re not allergic to seafood are you?” At her negative shake, “Good, good. ‘Frutti di mare’ it shall be then. Drop by anytime after 7:00….”

Chloe shook her head as Lucifer happily left, saying he had some shopping to do.

On her own way home, she picked up a bottle of Italian white wine and set it to chill in the refrigerator while she decided what to wear. Should I dress up? she wondered. His invite had seemed just spontaneous, as had her answer. She decided on her usual jeans and a pale green light summer Henley. They were just going to spend the evening in the penthouse after all. A pair of comfy ballet flats were the only real change she made, it was just too warm out for actual shoes.

An idea grabbed her as she gathered up her purse, an idea she thought Lucifer might actually appreciate…….

As soon as she stepped off the elevator into his apartment, the delicious smell of garlic, onions and herbs filled her nostrils. Whatever Lucifer was cooking, the aroma made her mouth water and she had to admit that the smells were amazing.

Hearing the ping of the lift, he walked to the living room, a dark green apron covering his shirt and trousers. “Tomato sauce,” he explained glancing down at himself. “Thought I’d go Italian, I remember you saying you like Italian food….” 

She handed him the bottle of wine she had brought, a Terlato pinot grigio, not terribly expensive but a little pricier than the California varietals she usually favoured. “I hope this is okay, the woman in the wine store recommended it….”

“It’s perfect,” he said with a wide smile. “I’m making a cioppino, and this will complement it beautifully……May I pour you a glass? Why don’t we sit in the kitchen while I add the seafood? It won’t take long, the sauce has been simmering for long enough now……”

She followed him to his designer kitchen. Black appliances of course and black cupboards, dark marble countertops that sparkled in the light, but a warm backsplash of grey and pale brown tile. It seemed that they would eat at the breakfast nook where he’d made omelets for her. Was it only a few days ago? 

One end of the table was attached a foot below the serving counter. Two place settings were already arranged, fire red plates each topped with a large bowl, beside them a cutting board with a fat fresh loaf of sour dough and a dish of whipped butter.

Lucifer opened the wine and poured them each a glass.

Chloe noticed a large deep pot on the stove, fragrant steam clouding above it. On the counter beside the stove were arranged various types of seafood. Lucifer set his wine down on the counter, and began adding the seafood to the simmering sauce, each kind in a particular order.

“Where did you learn to cook?………I don’t imagine you did much eating in hell….”

Lucifer laughed. “No, there’s no food in Hell to speak of. But a few chefs have wound up there over the millennia, and it isn’t like this is the first time I’ve been on the earth…….although I will say human cuisine has improved exponentially since, well, the early days…….

“When Maze and I arrived here, eating – and drinking – were two things I found I quite enjoyed. I don’t actually need to eat, none of us from the other realms have to…..but I really do enjoy the flavours, the combinations. And I discovered that if I tasted something that I really liked, I could just figure out what went into the dish……it isn’t that hard, and, after all, you do get to eat your experiments!” he added as he put the last of the seafood into the pot and placed the lid halfway over.

“Should be ready in just a few minutes. It’s summer and I couldn’t find really nice clams, so I raided LUX’s freezer and found some lovely frozen New Zealand mussels and other goodies…….They should work just as well….” He smiled at her as he sat down and took a sip of his wine.

“Tell me about the early days,” she looked at him, “You know, before you, um, got sent to Hell…….”

He went silent for a moment.

“All right,” he said, “but let’s eat first, shall we?”

She nodded as he took the bowls to the counter, removed the apron and began ladling a generous portion for each of them.

As she expected, it was beyond delicious. “Mmmm, langostino shrimp! I love these!” she exclaimed and meant it as she as she spooned one into her mouth. 

“They’re from Chile, and the crabs are Florida blues…..” 

“This is fabulous, seriously, Lucifer, you could open a restaurant…..” she grabbed a hunk of bread and began dipping into the sauce with enthusiasm. He wore a small half-smile at her compliment, and was glad that making a meal for her had pleased her so much. Judging by the way she was tucking into the fish stew, it was a sure hit.

“Garlic and onion, some diced tomatoes, a bit of stock, a bit of wine, a few fresh herbs. You just simmer the sauce for awhile then add your seafood in a certain order and it’s done…….Shopping for the ingredients is a lot harder than cooking them, I assure you.”

“I have a hard time picturing you down at the fish market, haggling with vendors,” she said between bites. “I just, well, never really think of you doing something ordinary, like shopping…….even before I knew who you were….”

When they finished (and he noted that there was not one drop left in her dish), she gave him the look she did so well, the one that demanded an answer, but in a way that was soft and measured for persuasion.

Still, he had a bit of a trapped look about him as he cleared the plates, and did not say anything.

Chloe knew almost automatically not to press the matter, that he would open up when he was ready to, and then she remembered the DVD and decided to take another tack entirely.

“I brought I movie I thought you might like to watch with me, it’s in my bag – when I was a teenager, my dad and I used to watch this one together, it was one of his favourites, and he would laugh until he cried, me too – everything’s been so, well, dramatic, lately… I thought it might be fun to just kick back for a bit and laugh….”

She went to the living room, grabbed the DVD from her purse and handed it to Lucifer.

His heart fell when he looked at the title and Chloe got the definite impression he was about to start squirming. “Are you sure?” his voice declaring his utter certainty that this was going to be far from fun, in fact possibly somewhat akin to torture, if the picture on the cover was anything to go by. But he plugged it in with a sigh and settled on the sofa next to her.

“Don’t worry,” Chloe looked at the crestfallen expression on his face, “it’s funny.”

It turned out that Lucifer’s misgivings were completely unjustified. Five minutes into Monty Python’s “Life of Brian” he was laughing so hard that tears were forming. They spent the next ninety minutes in near hysterics.

It felt good. Lucifer could not remember the last time he had laughed so heartily and, for that matter, neither could Chloe.

“My sides will be sore tomorrow,” she said with a grin, “I remember that always happening when dad and I watched this one – quite silly, isn’t it?”

“Silly? That doesn’t begin to cover it. It was delightful,” Lucifer said, grinning broadly. “Thank you for that, Chloe, it was a wonderful way to spend the evening…you were right. Aw, comedy. You humans – some of you anyway – truly appreciate satire…..’blessed are the cheese makers’……I loved it!”

After a few moments of idle chat, Chloe decided to take her leave. She noted Lucifer’s stiff body language and an awkward silence fell between them. Was it disappointment he felt?

She wasn’t sure of her own feelings. Half of her hoped he would ask her to stay. But he did not. He had seemed somewhat reticent before they had watched the video and she decided it was best to let him come around on his own. She wasn’t going to pressure him in any way…….she would let him decide how he wanted to proceed.

_______

When she got home, it was after 11:00 and she switched on one of the local news channels.

There were fire trucks and people milling about a very familiar place. She turned up the sound to “…….fire apparently started in the evidence lockers…….”

The precinct was on fire. Shit, shit, shit, she thought as her cel started to ring.


	6. Chapter 6

By the time Chloe got back to the station, Lucifer’s Corvette was on the street near the entrance, parked illegally, of course.

Only one fire truck was left at the scene, firemen in various places, people shouting. She caught sight of Lucifer’s tall form. He was with the Lieutenant and Olivia was obviously pissed, hair disarrayed. 

One of the night shift officers was with them, eyes fixed guiltily on his shoes. As she got closer, she heard “……..the goddamned evidence locker! I want an account of what everyone was doing every GODDAMNED MINUTE tonight!--”

Olivia turned in Chloe’s direction, “Do you know where Lopez is? Or your ex, for that matter?” (Chloe shook her head.) “I can’t get ahold of either of them…..I want Ella found ASAP…..

“And YOU,” she turned her attention to the uniform beside her, “You have the gall to tell me you didn’t see a goddamned thing? It’s your damned job--”

Chloe interrupted, “I just dialed Ella, it’s gone straight to voicemail, Dan too……Where could they be?”

The uniform looked up, Tim, Chloe thought, “They said they were going out drinking,” he offered, hoping to deflect some of the Lieutenant’s anger.

“What do you mean, drinking?” Olivia snapped.

“They, er, um, dropped off the container of evidence in the Richards case,” (no one noted the look Chloe and Lucifer exchanged) “….we secured it in one of the bins, they waited while I was putting in the lock code…..they were talking about, um, Ella’s brother, yeah, that’s it – he’s in town from Detroit. Ms. Lopez invited Dan to go drinking with them….

“It had just gone 7:00 when I secured the bin, then they left. No one, Lieutenant, I swear, no one else came down to Evidence tonight…..”

“Well, spontaneous combustion is an urban myth!” she growled at him, “I want the security footage gone over……..those cameras have to have picked up something….” 

It had been 1:00 a.m. when Lucifer and she had parted ways for the second time that evening, after Olivia had posted two officers to guard the hallway leading to the evidence room.

“No one, and I do mean NO ONE gets in or out of here until forensics arrives. And somebody keep calling Lopez. She can’t have just dropped off the face of the goddamned earth! It’s the middle of the night and I’m in a really nasty mood – I’m going home to get some sleep. Call me when you find Lopez,” this last over her shoulder as she stomped towards the door.

Chloe had driven home and gone directly to bed, but sleep had eluded her, at least a smooth sleep. 

As she and Lucifer said their goodnights, neither had noticed the pseudo-janitor watching them through the all-night coffee shop across from the precinct, a satisfied little smile at the edge of his lips as he sipped his coffee…….

________

Ella’s head weighed seventy-five pounds, at least that’s how heavy it felt when she tried to lift it. And why was the damned bed so frickin’ uncomfortable? 

When she heard her phone ringing, she tried to sit up and realized why the bed seemed so hard. She was lying on the floor, a dusty and rather dirty floor. She swore as she banged her head on something, oh, the edge of the coffee table. Where the hell am I? She tried opening her eyes, but the room started to spin…….

Putting a hand out to steady herself, she opened them again to see a cluttered and obviously bachelor pad, old school at that, like something from the 1950’s. Cheap furniture, threadbare rug….and empty beer bottles everywhere. Ah yeah, there it was, the 40-ounce bottle of Hornito’s blue agave sitting in the centre of the table surrounded by empties, shot glasses and chewed lime wedges littering what parts of the table could be seen.

“Oh God, oh God, I am NEVER drinking tequila again, I promise. Never. Not ever. Not even with a gun to my head…….”

She looked around and saw a face-down body on the couch, one leg trailing on the floor. It looked familiar. Right. Dan. Dan Espinoza. Detective Dan…..and then she remembered, well, sort of. It had started with a few cervezas, all very friendly, with Ricardo and Eduardo, two of the notorious Lopez boys, sitting in what passed for a living room at her brother’s shop….

Then Ricky had brought out the Hornito’s. “Jesus (sorry Lord), that was killer stuff.” Ella didn’t drink like that very often, but she had grown up with four older brothers and she could hold her own with them. Sometimes. She remembered the first couple of shots going down oh so very smoothly, then around shot number four things started to get fuzzy. Very fuzzy.

A moan from the couch had her turning to look, then cursing as the pain followed about nine inches behind her before slamming into the back of her head. She heard a mumbled “what the fuck?” and managed to grab one arm of the couch to help haul herself up. She shook the leg that was sticking out, “wakey, wakey, Danny boy, I think it’s tomorrow…….gotta find my phone.”

When it started ringing again, that made it easier. Her purse was on the floor behind a beat-up easy chair. It was just after 7:30 a.m. She hit redial and Chloe answered immediately.

“Wazzup?” was all she could manage.

“Ella? Where have you been? We’ve been calling and calling all night. Is Dan with you? No one can get him either--”

“Yeah, he’s right here. We, uh, drank last night with a couple of my crazy brothers. Guess we, uh, sort of…..overdid it. Ok, so what’s going on?”

“You obviously haven’t seen the news yet or you wouldn’t be asking. There was a fire at the precinct last night. In the evidence lockup--”

“Come on, Chloe, it’s like, really NOT nice to play tricks on someone with a head like mine, really, it isn’t.”

“No, Ella, I’m not pulling your leg. There was a fire in the evidence room, around 10:00 last night. It’s all burned to a crisp, we need you here to go over the stuff……or what’s left of it.”

Ella’s heart sank and she felt on the brink of hurling. Not just from the tequila. “Tell me it’s not the Richards case” (silence on the other end) “No, Chloe, not my evidence!” She heard the sigh at the other end. 

“Shit, we’re on our way in.”  
_________

“This isn’t possible!!” Ella was yelling, even though raising her voice made the headache a thousand times worse.

Officer ‘Tim’ had taken his break at 10:00. It was supposed to be only twenty minutes, but it was a quiet night and he had stayed in the break room a few minutes longer. 

It was the fire alarm that had sent him running back to evidence, only to see the smoke billowing from one of the lockers. The sprinklers were already on and the fire department had arrived, ordering everyone out until the room and building could be deemed safe. 

It did not take long.

He swore up and down that he had not seen anything unusual, in fact the night had been far quieter than normal for a Friday night at the precinct.

When they were able to play the footage from the security camera in the hall across from the cage entrance to the evidence room, everything looked normal at 10:02. The desk was empty, but the footage had shown Tim locking the door as he went for his break. No one could have squeezed through the six-inch high opening through the Plexiglas cage.

At 10:03, a gloved hand appeared to cover the camera lens, and after that the remainder of the video was nothing but snowy static.

Someone had got in, no doubt of it, but no one could figure out how. The door had been locked and the firefighters had used an axe to force it open. The fire had started in the sealed locker that held the Richards evidence. The walls were scorched, but oddly there was very little damage, though there had been a lot of smoke.

All that was left of the evidence in the case against Charlotte Richards was some fine ash. Every single item had been destroyed. Even the blade and handle of the letter opener had melted.

Ella could not fathom it. To utterly destroy everything would have meant an extremely hot blaze, yet the walls near the locker had not combusted, despite the scorch marks up to the ceiling and the paint that had begun to bubble and curl. 

There was no sign of any kind of explosion. Yet it was all gone. Strangest of all, none of the other lockers had been damaged. Evidence in a dozen other cases was still secured away, though doubtless some of it dampened by the sprinkler system.

“For this amount of damage,” Ella was insisting, “the whole room should have gone up! I don’t understand how this could have happened. There was not a single thing in bags and bags of evidence that could have triggered a fire, there’s no sign of any accelerant, and all that got damaged was the evidence in ONE CASE!” (Ow, she thought, I’ve got to stop shouting…..) “but it’s ALL gone! This doesn’t make any sense at all….”

Chloe handed her a bottle of orange juice, and Ella accepted gratefully, her post-tequila mouth feeling incredibly dry…….she drank nearly half the bottle in two enormous swigs and felt momentarily better…..

“This just really sucks,” she said, “that woman is going to get off….we have NOTHING for the evidentiary hearing, nothing, dammit! They aren’t going to proceed on her word versus Linda’s word because Linda refuses to testify, God only knows why…..and how could a fire start in one of the lockers, hot enough to burn the rug, the clothes, and even the weapon??? Everything should have gone up……I just don’t understand….”

“Well, you’d better get on it,” Olivia looked at her sternly, not pleased being back at work on a Saturday morning. “I want to know what happened and I don’t care how hung over you are, Ms. Lopez……”

“I’ll help you,” Dan had whispered over his shoulder, “only for the fact that misery loves company……I can’t remember ever being this hung over…..”

Ella nodded in resignation, thanked Chloe for the OJ and started barking instructions to some of the uniforms……..There wasn’t much residue left to analyze, but to the lab it would go……..

It was still her day off. Chloe reached for her phone, 9:00 a.m. after another almost sleepless night. She punched Lucifer’s number and was half-surprised when he picked up immediately.

“Hey, partner,” she said, “We found Ella, I’m just at the station now….I was wondering if I could talk you into making breakfast for me…”

“I’d be delighted, Detective!”

It took only ten minutes to get to LUX. As she rode up in the lift, Chloe thought of how natural it felt to be having breakfast with Lucifer, had it only been last night that he had made dinner for her?

He had decided that simple would be best and had offered a platter of sliced fruit, with some fine Greek yogurt, but the coffee was the strong espresso he liked so much and Chloe was grateful for the tart jolt of the caffeine.

“Thanks for this,” she said as she offered her empty cup for a refill. 

“I suppose the one good thing about it all, is that fact that our Charlotte problem seems to have been resolved,” Lucifer observed, “I don’t suppose there will be a trial now, without any evidence. Her human self is innocent……even if mum used her body to do the actual crime.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean. I don’t like the woman, but the one I knew wasn’t really her, was it? Oh, sorry, I guess I’m saying I really disliked your mum…..”

“That’s quite all right. Mum is a bit challenging at the best of times, being, well, goddess of all creation, you did all right, considering it could have turned out much, much worse, trust me on that.”

“I do trust you, Lucifer.” She stared at him. “I hope you know that.”

He gave her a small smile. “I do, and I trust you too, Det—Chloe…”

“Poor Ella,” she went on, “I had to be so careful not to give anything away, by like, smiling, you know? She was devastated, I really did feel sorry for her. We had so much from Linda’s office…..I don’t think I’ve ever seen Olivia that pissed off, at least not that I can remember,” as she accepted a second small cup of espresso.

Then she laughed out loud. “Ella and Dan looked like they’d prefer death to being at work this morning……..seems they had a pretty rough night, I could swear they both looked a bit green, literally…..I guess that’s why they call it ‘To Kill Ya’,” she laughed again as she took another sip of the coffee. 

The ping of the elevator caught them both by surprise. Heading into the living room, they noticed Maze strutting into the penthouse, followed by a dark-haired woman that Chloe thought looked vaguely familiar. Then she remembered the nurse at LA Memorial who had pushed passed her at the cafeteria door. The nurse in blue scrubs…….

She turned to look at Lucifer and was stunned to see that he had gone an ashy white.

“Hello, Samael,” purred the ‘nurse’. “I see you made it back from the desert in one piece…..just how did you manage that?”

“Lilith,” he sounded….disturbed. “So it was you….”

“Yes, me,” she glanced at Chloe. “Has cutting off your wings made you stupid as well as weak? And who is the human? Mazikeen, is this the detective? Well, how lovely to meet you,” she held out her hand, but Chloe was quite sure she did not want to take it.

“The war leader of my children, my Lilim, and I,” glancing at Maze, “have been catching up……..It has been a turn or two of the Great Year since you and I last met, Samael. Oh, no wait, you go by ‘Lucifer’ now, Maze tells me……whatever you prefer, my dear.”

Her eyes darkened and she shot Chloe a hard glance that turned her otherwise lovely face into something feral. 

“Now,” she turned to Lucifer, “Dismiss your human pet. Your world is unraveling around you, devil. And you and I have important things to discuss.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay in posting, meant to have this one up a week ago, but next will be up this weekend (finally got some days off).


	7. Chapter 7

“There’s no need to be impolite, Lilith,” Lucifer said to her, looking at Maze with a raised eyebrow. She stared back at him defiantly.

“The detective is no more my pet than you are and she can do as she pleases. Now, would you care to tell me just why you dropped me in the desert – I’m assuming it was from the air…..”

Lilith laughed, “All right, Samael, pardon me -- Lucifer. We can play ‘civil’ if you wish. I saw you at the hospital visiting that woman your mother nearly killed……You don’t know how delighted I was to find that Mazikeen had escaped Hell with you! My ‘daughter’ and I have been getting reacquainted these last few days…..It’s been quite the education--”

“To the point please, Lilith--” Lucifer began, but the dark-haired woman interrupted him.

“Actually I use the name Stella Benister at the moment, just for convenience, you understand, Mr. Morningstar…….I saw you leave the hospital and I was watching as Mazikeen here bashed you over the head and stripped you. I waited until she took your car, then found you in the bushes. 

“Have to admit those scars where she cut your wings off were a bit of a surprise. Why would you do such a foolish thing? Made it ever so much easier to pick you up though, you’re a lot lighter without them……I was half hoping you’d wake up and make a good fight of it, but you didn’t…..so I thought I’d have a bit of fun……

“I flew for quite awhile, then I got bored. I tried shaking you awake again, but she must’ve hit you pretty hard,” she smirked, then turned to Maze “That made me quite proud, I must say.” 

Her eyes went back to Lucifer, “You’re certainly not as powerful as you were when you went by Samael…….” She looked at him almost pityingly. “Eventually I found a place far away from any roads or people and I just let you drop. You hit the ground pretty hard…….sorry, must’ve hurt a bit,” and she laughed again. “I do admit, I’m rather surprised you made it back so quickly…..in your weakened state,” she taunted.

Lucifer’s eyes were glowing. “I have no quarrel with you, Lilith, never had. After all this time, what are you playing at? And how is it that you even survived? I was under the distinct impression all these millennia that Father had destroyed you……Most of your children ended up in Hell with me, so how did you manage to escape Dear Old Dad’s attention?”

“Oh, he was a bit preoccupied at the time with your Rebellion and all …. I hid in a deep dark cave and I stayed there for a long time, until all that damned water receded……”

“She means The Flood,” Lucifer looked at Chloe. “Lilith was Adam’s first wife. Before Eve. She, uh, wasn’t too fond of her husband…..”

If Chloe was shocked, she did not show it, but rather tried to take the measure of this female being.

Chloe said “You mean ‘the’ Adam?” trying to make her voice sound level and non-committal, though her brain was telling her this is not happening, this cannot be happening, this is not real, not real, not real……..

“Yes, THE Adam,” Lilith said, “the first so-called human. Except we became aware together, at the exact same moment….”

“Became ‘aware’?” Chloe was puzzled.

Lilith looked at her, “Surely you don’t believe that stupid story that God created humans out of a lump of dirt, do you?”

Chloe returned the look, “These days I’m not really sure what to believe….”

That brought another laugh from Lilith/Stella. “Can’t say I blame you for that. You humans have been lying to each other for almost as long as you’ve existed.”

“What do you mean, ‘you humans’? Aren’t you human?”

Lilith was quiet for a moment. “I was human, in the beginning……”

Lucifer interrupted, “Dad was tinkering with this world. He decided to take one of the life forms that had developed here and give you consciousness, rather, higher consciousness, what you would refer to as a ‘soul’, and see what you did with it…”

Lilith continued “Adam and I were the first pair, but we weren’t the only ones that woke up. It was happening all over the planet in various places, but we were definitely the first, and we were the only ones for awhile……” Her startling amber eyes darkened and her hand went unthinking to the unusual necklace that she wore.

Chloe watched as she touched the long silver point that formed the main pendant. It was shaped like a tooth or a large claw, either side arranged with six smaller teeth, one silver, followed by two of apparent gold and three of copper, strung on a thin leather cord. 

“Adam was an idiot,” Lilith spat. “He was all, like, ‘do this Lilith,’ ‘I want it this way Lilith’ – we were created at the same time, from the same base material. We were EQUALS, but Adam decided he was going to be ‘in charge’ – a failing that is still typical of human males, I’ve observed….Trust me, it’s a weakness I have exploited over the years,” she smiled and her eyes were cold.

“Adam and I might have been happy, if he hadn’t been so damned stubborn. He was fun to couple with and we had a sweet little son – you’d know him as Cain” (she looked at Chloe, whose eyes had gone wide) “then he got into ‘I’m the father, I have to be in charge of everything’ bullshit. I found myself relegated to being little more than his servant…… if a task was difficult or messy or time-consuming or menial, it somehow always ended up being ME that had to do it. I put up with it for a few years, then I got sick and tired of doing all the work while that lazy ass hung out by the river or climbed a damned tree. And on top of all that, I had to take care of our son by myself…….didn’t seem like such a great arrangement to me. So I left him to look after himself……”

Maze looked at Lucifer, “Sound familiar, Lord of Hell?” she asked sarcastically.

Lucifer was highly offended “You actually dare to compare ME with that idiotic waste of oxygen?” 

Maze just glared at him, her chin stuck out like a petulant child. “If the damned shoes fit….” she said.

Lilith laughed again. “Shoes……..do you know how hard it is finding shoes with owl feet?” Chloe couldn’t help but look down at the woman’s feet, and could have sworn she glimpsed talons through the leather of the fashionable boots that adorned them. 

Lilith was still chuckling. “The wings were a bonus, the bird feet kind of sucked though, until I learned how to hide them….Still, having the owl as my symbol is somewhat fitting, don’t you think? Wise, and hunts vermin at night……

“His Father,” she pointed at Lucifer, “sent three angels to track me down and bring me back to Adam. Instead, I seduced all three of them. Wasn’t difficult either, the angels were a randy lot, quite a few of them mated with human females, there were even occasional offspring….”

“What?” Chloe was taken aback at this information and looked at Lucifer.

“The nephilim,” he explained, “Dad was pretty pissed about that, made us all sterile as a result. Something about mucking up your genetics…” 

Chloe had a momentary flash of a thousand or more little Lucifers running around LA, and shook her head to clear her mind’s eye. “That was probably a very good idea!”

Lilith went on, “Turning me into a demon was supposed to be a punishment, but I’ve actually quite enjoyed myself over the millennia,” she said brightly. 

“Then he sent the Angel of Death around to make his point,” indicating Lucifer with an extended finger. 

Chloe looked at him.

“My old job,” he offered by way of explanation. “Escorting the souls of the dead to the Silver City……it was boring….”

“Yes, but you weren’t,” Lilith purred. “I truly enjoyed having you, Samael! Even if it was only a couple of times……..

“What none of you angels realized while we were having sexual intercourse, was that I was siphoning off your energy……..It enabled me to survive all these eons…..I ended up not really needing my demon-children, as it turned out. I had the ability to enter men’s dreams and seduce them while they slept…….I always appeared as the most beautiful, the most desirable of human women…..and in return for a few very wet dreams, I was able to siphon off their soul energy.

“At first, I fed a little too much, some of them went crazy, some died…..then I learned to take only a little here and there…..those that I fed on came to worship me, not realizing they were worshipping their own soul-deaths…..”

“Succubus,” Lucifer said calmly, then, looking at Chloe “the origin of the vampire legend.”

“I always thought that was political,” Chloe said with wonder, “you know, the peasants coming up with that as an explanation for why their supposed masters were bleeding them dry and keeping them in poverty and misery……”

Lilith laughed again. “You really don’t understand, do you…….I take their soul energy – or, to put it more accurately, they offer me their soul energy in return for certain pleasures………As their souls are depleted, they seek outer power in the world to fill the emptiness. I don’t actually have to ‘do’ anything except give them some juicy sexual fantasies. You don’t get the real beauty of it……

“When the All-Father made me a demon and decided to kill my physical children – the ones he didn’t sweep into Hell with you, Lucifer -- I had thousands of years to contemplate my revenge……

“I don’t need to make children. The humans that I affect ‘become’ my children. The more of their soul energy I take as I feed, they more they want me, so I just tell them things they need to do to ‘placate’ me………thus turning the humans against themselves…..

“Best of all, it is only a select few that I need to feed on. As their material power grows and grows, my control over them becomes almost complete…..they look to ME for instruction, not to your Father…….

“And it’s been so easy to blame YOU for all of it!” And she laughed, and laughed all the harder for the horrified look on Lucifer’s face.

“He took my children, Devil, so I took his……..rather fitting, wouldn’t you say? Adam was happy enough with that mealy-mouthed little Eve, she had lots of children and did as she was told…..She didn’t like my little boy though. They were hard on him. Can’t really blame him for killing one of Eve’s brats…..”

Chloe’s brain was really starting to hurt. Cain, the first murderer, and here she was talking to his once-human mother.

“After he killed Eve’s firstborn, he ran off, and I’m glad he did. At least he got to live a life of his own choosing. He had lots of children with various women, so I suppose my human genes are still around in some people…..obviously only the most beautiful ones!” she declared with a peel of laughter.

She fixed her gaze on Chloe. “And you, daughter of Eve,” she said with emphasis, “have you not ever wondered why it seems there are two different species of human on the earth? Those that love life, love each other, love the planet… and those who do not? MY humans worship death and they don’t even know it…..and best of all, those that love end up nurturing them, feeding them, raising them, without even realizing that they are helping to bring about their own destruction……Do you not see the beauty of it? The best qualities of humans make the worst possible!” Her smile was nasty.

“I’ve learned a lot about your life here since you left your father’s prison, Lucifer. Mazikeen has told me some very interesting things about you…….”

Maze was watching Lucifer intently, an unreadable expression on her face. He would not look at her. He knew she had been angry with him, but this level of betrayal from her was truly unexpected. They had been through so much together, thousands of years of loyalty and companionship. It had not occurred to him that she would turn on him, no matter how angry she was…….It hurt. 

He kept his face a blank mask, though his eyes had a glimmer of fire in them. Lilith was watching him with something akin to enjoyment.

“Well, I think that’s enough chit-chat for now. How pleasant it has been playing catch-up with you. You haven’t seen the last of me, by any means, Samael…….oh, pardon me, Lucifer,” Lilith said in a cooing voice, “you’re really going to wish that you had kept the Flaming Sword……”

With that she turned on her heel and entered the elevator, Maze following, a little smile on her lips. As the doors closed and the car began its descent, they could both hear peals of laughter.

Lucifer looked at Chloe and saw that her eyes were glistening. She looked confused and it suddenly hit him how out of her depth she was, plunged into a totally new world that she knew little about, other than what she had experienced through him, because of him.

It took only two steps to reach her and he hadn’t realized he had taken them until he found himself wrapping his arms around her. She leaned against his shoulder and pulled him into a hug. She was shaking. “I’m really scared, Lucifer, that woman, I feel like something bad is going to happen……Does she know that you can die when I’m around?”

“I don’t know, Chloe, but I think it’s safe to assume that whatever Maze knows, she knows…..I’m so sorry,” he whispered into her hair, “so sorry for all of it, for turning your world upside down – This must be so hard for you--” 

She pulled away and looked up at him and he saw that her eyes were filled with tears. “As long as you don’t keep me in the dark…….that’s what scares me more than anything, my own imagination – the reality I can sort of deal with. I mean, I’ll be able to handle it, as long as I know that you trust me enough to let me know what’s really going on. I – I need that from you, Lucifer. I need that…….”

“You have it, I promise,” and he pulled her close for a moment, thinking of the way Lilith had unconsciously been fiddling with the strange necklace she wore. There was something about it that disturbed him. 

But he could not put his finger on what it was.  
_________

The day didn’t exactly fly by for Detective Espinoza and Ella Lopez, most of it spent going over every bit of video recording from Friday night at the precinct. 

To no avail. There was nothing untoward on the tapes, nothing suspicious, just the normal activity of a busy LA precinct on a Friday night. They could not see anyone who stood out, just a parade of the usual characters, a couple of angry men testosterone-driven into a fist fight over a parking spot, a few shop lifters, some interrupted drug deals, and later on in the night a crowd of overly drunk revelers who had taken their bar fight out into the street, only to be met by two patrol cars………

All the personnel on duty were accounted for, the usual cleaning staff could be seen in the background and there was no hint of anything even remotely out of the ordinary.

“We got nada,” Ella moaned letting her head hit the desk as they watched the last of the video footage. “Same with the container – no prints, no NOTHING. This makes me feel like a rank amateur. Dammit, Dan. This feels personal. I mean, I know it’s not, but someone planted a whole omelet on my face and I don’t like it……

“Hey, do you think maybe Charlotte Richards actually hired someone to do this?” she looked up at him, quirking an eyebrow at his expression, which was somewhere between possibly agreeing with her and “No, Ella, I don’t……I mean, she’s a shark lawyer, but she used to be a cop. I don’t think even she would stoop that low.”

Ella noted the guilty look after he said it. “Still smarting, eh, buddy?” She mock-punched his arm and smiled.

“I just know Olivia is gonna make me go to the hearing and say out loud in front of the whole court that we lost all our evidence in a mysterious fire we can’t figure out how got started, set by someone we can’t find, and we can’t even get any evidence in our own house……Wow, that’s really going to do a lot for our cred around town. It’s gonna suck, Dan, it’s gonna really suck.”

Dan nodded in agreement, a look of resignation on his face. “Come on, Lopez, cheer up. There’s not a lot more we can do here. Isn’t it supposed to be a day off? Hey, you hungry?” (Ella nodded) “I think I can finally think of eating without the next thought being porcelain. Actually, come to think of it, I’m starving! Let’s go grab some dinner…..”

Ella thought it over for a minute before chirping, “Good idea……Not Mexican though, it’ll just remind me of tequila…….Not ready for that for another million years!”

“There’s a great new Italian place not far from here--” Dan suggested.

“You mean ‘Sapori d’Italia’? I’ve heard the food is great, real home-cooked stuff. Been wanting to try it since it opened. Pasta sounds perfect. I’m right behind you,” she said as they headed for the exit.

_________

 

It was Sunday now and Amenadiel had arrived soon after Lucifer prayed his request. The Devil had said his goodbyes to Chloe the previous day, asking only that she keep him posted on anything she heard from Maze.

When Chloe got home, the apartment was deserted and eerily silent without Trixie or her demon roommate.

It was obvious that Maze had been there. The door to her bedroom was closed and when Chloe tried the handle after knocking, found that it was locked. Heading into the kitchen, she saw an empty coffee cup on the counter, a note pinned under it:

“Decker, taking off for a few days. I’ll be back. Take care of our friend while I’m gone.” 

Beside the note was a small pile of cash, enough to cover rent for August and a share of the utilities.

Chloe had called Lucifer immediately and read him the cryptic note. “She must be planning on being away for a couple of weeks. She left me next month’s rent plus. There’s nothing else, Lucifer. The place is even clean – which really isn’t like Maze. There aren’t even any dishes in the garbage….”

Lucifer had laughed at that, not that Maze would have dared throw HIS dishes away.

“Nice that she asked me to look after you,” Chloe observed, until Lucifer pointed out, “How do you know she meant me? Could be Linda she’s referring to—”

“Ok, maybe you’re right about that. Which reminds me, I think I will look in on Linda today and see how she’s doing……..”

“And I’ll talk to my brother and see what he thinks about all this. I’ll call you later.”

“Lucifer?” she said before hanging up, “Promise you’ll stay safe, okay?”

“I will, Chloe, I will.” She could not see the little smile that played on his lips at the concern in her voice…….

___________

 

“So, it was Lilith who dropped you in the desert, brother?” Amenadiel looked shocked. “I didn’t even know she was still around……..”

“Neither did I, trust me on that…….It’s been thousands of years. Why would she resurface now? A more pertinent question might be what could she possibly want that she doesn’t already have?” Lucifer’s voice went quiet as he thought of the implications.

“She said she was ‘just having fun’ and got bored when she couldn’t wake me up, so just dropped me and bloody well flew away…….No wonder I was so banged up, I must’ve hit the ground damned hard to keep me unconscious for, I’d say it had to have been sixteen or seventeen hours……”

Amenadiel looked concerned, “So I take it she doesn’t know you have your wings back?”

“Apparently not, brother. I certainly didn’t have them when I left the hospital. Could they have just grown back in a few hours? The scars have always itched a bit from time to time……thing is, I don’t remember how the first pair came to be, they were just THERE, you know?”

“I remember watching you practise with them, but we were all doing that. Come to think of it, I don’t ever remember wings ‘growing’ – as you say, it’s like we always had them. You think Dad, well, zapped you when you were unconscious?”

He stopped talking as he saw the look on Lucifer’s face, his eyes had gone wide as something occurred to him.

“Do you remember me telling you about Eric Johnson, the guy from the mental hospital—even changed his name to ‘God’ officially?”

“The one who had the other part of the sword, the man you thought was Dad?”

“The very one. And, yes, I did think he was Dad for a few hours. He really did have the power to heal. That crazy nurse cut her own mother’s throat and I saw this Johnson chap make the blood flow reverse and go right back into her neck, then the wound vanished…….it was pretty convincing at the time…….”

“And?”

“When I first spoke to him (before I hit him, that is), he called me Samael—“

“Yes, you told me—”

“Well, I just remembered something. He put his arm around my shoulder – then, later, when we, um, ‘broke out’ of the mental hospital, he put his hand on my back…..”

“You mean, you think HE healed you??”

“Always the sharpest knife in the drawer, bro, well done! That’s exactly what I’m saying…..”

Amenadiel considered this theory for a moment.

“But that happened weeks ago, Luci, wouldn’t the wings have grown back then? It makes more sense to think Dad saw you were in real trouble out in the desert and just gave you a new set—”

“That would imply that he cared about my wellbeing, and I won’t give him the benefit of that doubt. And why, brother, why would he do it now? Unless he thought that I would need them for some reason…and that thought is a trifle disturbing.”

Amenadiel sighed. “Lucifer, it could be you’re over-thinking this. I don’t know why he’d give you back your wings now…….maybe he’s happy that you didn’t destroy Mom or try and storm the Silver City…..Why did he give my wings back too? And some of my other abilities…….

“Maybe he’s just letting both of us know that he really does care what happens to us.” 

Lucifer snorted as Amenadiel poured them both another scotch, “I’d call that a long shot, bro,” but his voice was quiet.

Amenadiel looked at him. “You’re different, Lucifer. I mean, since the desert. Something is definitely different about you…..”

“Well, obviously, Oh Observant One,” he said with an eye-roll worthy of Chloe.

“That’s not what I mean, Luci. You seem – I’m not sure what the right word is – you seem………calmer.”

“I had a lot of time to think while I was out there. I had to just sit still for hours until the sun went down. There really wasn’t much else to do, you know.”

Amenadiel laughed, “Well, brother, you’ve never really been the introspective sort…. You’re more the type that – how do the humans put it? – ‘runs off in all directions at once’--” He took a sip of the scotch as he chuckled.

Lucifer glared at him, but he was not really annoyed. “When night fell and I started practising with the wings, I, uh, had to rest quite often. I’d forgotten how beautiful this place is…..I looked up at the sky – you can’t really see the night sky in LA, in any city – I realized that I had forgotten how truly amazing it all is……it was……it was an overwhelming feeling….”

“What was, Luci?”

“Joy, brother. I felt joy,” he said very softly and not a little sadly. “It had been a long, long time since I felt it. I actually thanked Dad for giving me the wings back. The thought just sort of popped out. It was more though…..looking up at the sky, the stars, the Milky Way. It felt profound. At least that’s the closest word I can think of……It made me realize how much I love this place.”

“This place, Luci?” Amenadiel said with a knowing smile.

Lucifer attempted a glower, but couldn’t quite manage it, “Yes, brother, that too. But I do mean this earth. The planet. This world. Parts of it are breathtaking. I’ve ignored it all for a very long time……

“It actually felt wonderful being out in the desert. Completely alone (well, if you don’t count the bugs and lizards). I want to see more of it, do some exploring………parts of the Garden are still here. I want…….”

“What do you want, little brother?” Amenadiel looked at him.

“I want to not have to look over my shoulder all the time. I want to just live without worrying someone or some THING is out to get me or kill me or manipulate me, or hurt the people I care about…….I’m so tired of fighting……I’m tired of it all, it’s been such a long time…….

“I just want to be happy.” Lucifer was swirling the scotch in his glass before taking another sip.

“You know what would also be really great? If Dad would, for once – only once, that’s all I’m asking – just tell us right up front what he actually wants from us and let us CHOOSE what to do. Is that too much to ask?”  
________


	8. Chapter 8

Chloe had called Linda as soon as she hung up from speaking with Lucifer. They agreed on Sunday brunch and Chloe realized she was really looking forward to it, not only because she had grown fond of the psychiatrist, but because Linda also knew the truth about their celestial and not-so-celestial friends.

She poured herself a glass of wine, wishing Trixie was home from her Bear Lake adventure. The end of the week was such a long way away. The apartment seemed so empty without her, and with Maze gone too on whatever mission she deemed herself on at the moment.

Sitting at the breakfast bar, she opened her laptop and typed ‘Lilith’ into the search engine, then spent the next couple of hours reading various accounts of the former-human-turned-demon. 

There were, of course, wild variations on the story, but most agreed that she had indeed been Adam’s first wife and had been turned into a demonic form for disobedience – which seemed to jive with what the ‘woman’ in Lucifer’s penthouse had said to her. 

One account claimed that Lilith had been none other than the wife of God himself, who rebelled against him (her sneering arrogance certainly reminded Chloe of the occupied Charlotte, but was clearly not the same entity), another said she was the ‘consort of the demon Samael’ (but Chloe knew HIM personally, after all, so again obviously not true, as was the ridiculous description of Samael being miles high, covered with a thousand eyes and eight hundred wings). One site even said that Lilith produced 784 demonic children in a matter of days by causing night emissions in human males! And there were some that said she appeared in dreams as a luscious seductress and fed off the energy of human beings……

No wonder humanity is so screwed up, Chloe thought as she glowered at the screen. Even the ‘official’ versions of the story were wildly disparate, and there was no way to tell how much or what was actually true, apart from the very sketchy information that Lucifer himself gave her (“I was a bit preoccupied at the time with the Rebellion and all, didn’t really pay attention to what Lilith was doing….”).

Then she found the Burney relief, showing an Assyrian-looking woman wearing a strange and elaborate necklace, winged (though hers were smaller and more bird-like than Lucifer’s grandly imposing ones), with large raptor talons instead of feet (‘do you know how hard it is to find shoes with owl feet?’). The central figure was flanked by two crudely executed owl sculptures, though the rendering of the demon herself was quite finely crafted. The panel was thought to be nearly 3,000 years old, the image supposedly based on much older legends……..The mother of Cain, many varied sources also claimed she was the mother of Cain…..

Maybe Linda would be of some help sorting through it all. She closed the laptop and reached for another glass of wine, wondering idly how Maze came to be……  
________

 

Mazikeen had always wondered the same thing. 

Lucifer had never been clear on the matter, despite their long association. It had seemed to her as if she just suddenly appeared in Hell, fully formed, except for the left side of her face that was decayed and nearly fleshless. He had taught her how to form the glamour that hid her demon countenance……..

“Your body was human, originally,” the mother-demon told her. They were seated on a bench in a seaside park, Lilith calmly watching the ebb and flow of the tide a few dozen feet away from them.

“She was a beautiful but very unfortunate young woman. Gathering food plants along a hillside, slipped and fell down an embankment. She hit the rocks and died. I found the body a couple of days later, half-rotten, parts eaten by animals. I gave you life again, Mazikeen, so in a sense, I actually am your mother, though I did not birth you the way humans normally do…….”

“Why don’t I remember any of this?” Maze looked askance, and disgusted. Made from corruption and rot, and, far more ghastly than that, from one of the weak and stupid humans! This was not possible. And certainly NOT acceptable.

“My first memory is being in Hell, with creatures……..and then Lucifer--”

“Yes, his Father was in a very punishing mood back in those days. Always smiting things. When he cast Samael down with some of the other rebellious angels, he swept my demon children into Hell, the ones he didn’t destroy outright……I lost all of you, hundreds of you, in a very short time……

“But I had these, and this is what I used to give you life.” Maze’s eyes went wide when she saw what it was that Lilith held in her hand.

__________

Amenadiel was watching him as Lucifer fingered the onyx and silver ring that never left the middle finger of his right hand. It was an absent gesture, performed more from habit than intention. The older angel’s hand went to the necklace that he himself always wore, apart from the very few hours when it had once again served its original purpose.

“Did Father give you that ring, Lucifer?”

“What? Oh, right,” he said as if his brother’s words had brought him back from somewhere else. “No. Not Father. Azrael gave it to me……Right before Michael tossed me off the ramparts of the Silver City……She was the only one who came to see me before Dad’s sentence was carried out……”

“Ah – she does love you, Lucifer. You were the only one of us who could always make her laugh……”

“Yes, she was always the quiet and serious one. I did enjoy teasing her! I’m sure she’s doing a much better job of being the ‘Angel of Death’ than I did when I was Samael,” he said with a laugh, then his voice became serious. 

“She put it on this finger as they were coming for me. Told me never to take it off. And I never have….It was made at The Great Forge that produced the Sword….” 

He went quiet as he thought of his sister’s sorrowful face, her eyes filled with tears at the fate he was about to suffer so very long ago. 

The only one of all of them who even cared enough to say goodbye, he thought bitterly, then smiled at his brother. At least the two of them had somehow managed to patch things up, tenuous as it might be. Then Lucifer mentally kicked himself as he realized he was actually starting to like his older brother……

_____

Linda buzzed Chloe in just after 11:00 that Sunday morning.

“How are you doing, doc?” she asked, handing Linda a bottle of a very good California white.

“I feel great, honestly, Chloe. It’s like nothing ever happened. Hah, even my old appendectomy scar is gone and I’d bet my appendix has grown back too – too bad Amenadiel didn’t make my eyesight 20-20 again,” she sighed, then laughed as she put the wine on the table. 

She had made a simple fresh salad of cucumber, onion and multi-coloured cherry tomatoes, and next to it sat a plate with fully loaded bagels topped with cream cheese, lox, capers, and wispy thin slices of white onion – it looked scrumptious and Chloe said as much as the two sat down and helped themselves to their snacks.

“Yeah, my mom used to call this ‘heaven on a plate’ – it’s my favourite Sunday brunch meal, always has been—”

After a few minutes, Chloe looked at the doctor. “What do you know about religion, Linda?”

“Not a whole lot…….some when I was young, but I never paid much attention once I went to college. Well, until Lucifer. Why?”

“I met a strange ‘woman’ at Lucifer’s apartment yesterday. She said her name was Lilith--”

“Lilith?? THE Lilith??”

“You know who she is then?”

Linda poked the glasses that sat at the bridge of her nose, an unconscious move she often made when thinking. Then she looked at Chloe.

“I never did tell you guys about my family, did I?” (Chloe shook her head.) “My mum was a NY Jewish princess, very smart, very intellectual, very, um, rebellious. Dad’s folks were Scottish Catholics who settled in Michigan. They met at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio – back in the Sixties it was a hotbed of political activism – anyway, they fell head over heels. Of course, both sides of the family went totally ballistic. Put up all kinds of barriers…….threatened to disown them, all that stuff.

“Eventually though, they got married. They really loved each other, you know? But for mum’s family to give their blessing, my parents had to promise that any children would be raised in the Jewish religion. I don’t think mum or dad ever really cared – both of them were into the ‘Screw the Establishment’ mindset – you know, anti-war, hate your parents, junior environmentalists, ‘fight the Fascist Man, man!’” Linda laughed.

“You should have heard some of the ‘discussions’ around holiday dinners – and, believe me, we had to celebrate ALL the holidays. You know, menorah and Christmas tree, Passover and Easter. It was confusing for a kid! Even though they didn’t really care about all that stuff, I had to go to Hebrew school, had a bas mitzvah when I was 13 – ha, I even got into Krav maga!” 

At Chloe’s puzzled look, she added “Israeli martial arts – my mum was all about empowering women, figured with me being so short I might be a rape target or something, so when I was a teenager, she got me involved in a defense class……..I actually loved it,” she said with a snort of laughter. “Makes you feel a whole lot safer when you can defend yourself – by the time I went off to college, I was damned good at it—”

“It was kick-boxing for me…..at the Academy,” Chloe responded, “but I know what you mean, it makes a world of difference when you feel like you can do all right in a scrap…..”

“Anyway,” Linda continued, “I heard a little bit about Lilith. Adam’s first wife, supposedly left him because he always wanted to be on top, even when they had sex.” Both women laughed out loud. “Some of the Jewish texts say she was the mother of Cain, but there’s not much in the ‘official’ Bible about her…..and you met her, you say?”

“Yup. And, Linda, I’m so glad I can talk to you about all this. You are the only other human being I know that wouldn’t lock me in a mental hospital! And you, well, you know who all these folks really are. You know how Lucifer can be, he tries to explain things, but, I mean, he’s not human, if you know what I mean – sometimes he doesn’t seem to understand what the actual question is….. 

“It just feels good to be able to talk about it with another human ……I have a bad feeling about this demon-woman or whatever she is…….

“And Maze is with her. That just can’t be good. For Lucifer, I mean.”

Linda looked at her. “I’m thinking we better open that wine you brought. Then you can tell me all about it.”

_____

 

The celebration at Richards & Wheeler, Attorneys at Law, the following week, was subdued. Charlotte had checked herself out of the psych unit the day after the case was thrown out, with a very stern lecture to the LAPD lawyers about wasting the court’s valuable time and defaming the reputation of a respected lawyer.

The law office even broke out the good champagne for the occasion, and, though Charlotte herself was relieved, she was thoroughly put off by the ebullience of her partner/former lover Brad Wheeler. She remembered sleeping with him, of course, but all she could rustle up now when she looked at him was wondering what she had ever seen in him in the first place. Her actual husband had been very kind and supportive and had visited her in the hospital nearly every day and, to her great surprise, she found his presence not only welcome, but triggering a distant memory of just why she had married him in the first place.

Charlotte had voiced her thanks to everyone at Richards and Wheeler, then dropped the bomb shell that she would be taking a leave of absence for the rest of the year, telling them that at this point, all she really wanted was to get reacquainted with her twin boys, while she tried to sort out what had actually happened to her.

The press, fortunately for the LAPD, paid little heed to the case. Everyone assumed the late Hector Ruiz had killed his younger brother, the ‘cleaner’, and quite possibly had also arranged the attack on Dr. Martin. He was dead and the case was closed.

It simply wasn’t news any more, buried well back as a small item on the local interest page of the Times, and though it grated on Ella, the rest of LA seemed to have already forgotten all about it. 

At least Olivia had been kind enough to not force her or Dan to go to the hearing.

__________________

The week was blessedly uneventful for all of them. It was the height of summer, and, the thermometer had topped 100F for a couple of days, it was almost unbearable. Even the criminals seemed stymied by the heat and Chloe found herself wishing she could wear shorts and a tank to work, but at least the precinct had air conditioning. 

They were all grateful for the heat though. Crime really did go down when it was too hot to even think of walking across the street. Chloe felt more than sorry for the uniforms that had duty outside in their dark blues, remembering her days on the street before finally making detective and being able to wear her own clothes.

There were only a couple of cases that she and Lucifer needed to work on. He never seemed phased by the heat, and why would he, being the devil. Still, it was almost disconcerting to see him cool and comfortable in a suit, when everyone around was wilting in short sleeves. If they only knew, she thought to herself with a secret smile.

The only thing she really looked forward to as the week wound down was that Trixie would be home the following afternoon. They had spoken on the phone every day in the two weeks she had been gone and from the excitement in the little girl’s voice, she and her new best friend were having the time of their lives. 

Chloe sighed, remembering summer excursions with her mum and dad up to the mountain cottage they used to rent. She wished sometimes that she could revisit those simple times, before she was the parent, before college, before the Academy, back when summer really was synonymous with vacation. Since she and Dan had cancelled their annual camping trip, she was immeasurably thankful that Carlie’s parents had offered to take Trixie for a real holiday, something neither Dan nor she could afford on their own. She half wished she could have gone with them.

Maybe next summer, she thought to herself, maybe next summer…..

___________

Carlie’s parents dropped Trixie off just before dinnertime the following day, good timing, as Chloe had arrived home from work only ten minutes before. They themselves were in a hurry to get home and make their own supper after their long drive. After thanking them and asking how Trixie had behaved (assured that she was a perfect kid and loads of fun), she waved a happy goodbye as they drove off. 

Her daughter had an amazing dark tan, even through the sun screen she had insisted must always be worn. Then she remembered how dark she herself used to get as a kid, especially when out on the water with her parents. And Dan, thirty minutes in the sun and he was as dark as it took her two weeks to get, lucky bugger.

Trixie was over the moon with stories of her adventures with her bestie. They had spent days on the boat (“yes, mum, Carlie’s dad always made me wear a life jacket!”), and had gone for a few horse rides, with side trips to various points of interest, but Trixie couldn’t stop talking about the Big Bear Solar Observatory on the north side of the lake.

“We learned all about the sun, mum, it was great. Did you know there’s a total eclipse in a couple of weeks? Carlie’s dad has a telescope – we looked at the night sky. Can we go up to the Griffith Observatory during the eclipse? Carlie and her family are going, can we please……the next one isn’t until like a hundred years from now……it’ll be so cool. They have these special glasses you have to wear so your eyes don’t go blind—”

The child’s wild enthusiasm was contagious. Chloe had seen something on the news about the eclipse on the morning of August 21, only around 70% totality in Los Angeles, but still enough to make a pretty spectacular show…….She couldn’t help but smile, remembering trips to the planetarium with her dad watching laser light shows set to rock music, she had always enjoyed learning about the sky, and it seemed her daughter had inherited the trait. 

The child was right too. Unless you were rich enough to afford to fly to a prime location, there was only a once-in-a-lifetime chance to experience a total solar eclipse in person. She seemed to remember hearing there wouldn’t be another one over the continental USA until the end of the century. Even Trixie might not make it that far into the future, and if she did, she’d be in her late eighties. Besides, it was great to see her bright and wonderful daughter show an interest in science, as she had at that age……...before her mum started dragging her to acting classes and dance. 

“Ok, honey! I’ll be on my summer holidays then too. You mark it on your calendar. Maybe I’ll see if your dad can get the day off too, would you like that?”

Trixie’s bear hug was a good enough answer. “I’m so glad you’re home, sweetie,” Chloe told her daughter, “it’s been lonely here without you.”

“But you had Maze, mum--”

“No, Trix, Maze hasn’t been here……..I guess she’s off on her own summer vacation, so I’ve been all on my own. And I really missed you!” she reached forward, but Trixie dodged the tickle she knew was coming and laughed. Ah, Chloe thought, it’s amazing how a child’s laugh can fill a room. She looked at her daughter and smiled.

“So, what’ll it be for dinner tonight, monkey?”

“Can we go to that cool place for a veggie burger?”

“Of course we can, sweetheart – and maybe a pastry after,” she added with a wink. “You go put your stuff away, okay? I’ll call Carlie’s mum and we’ll make a plan for the eclipse.”

Friday couldn’t come soon enough, Chloe thought to herself as she dialed the number. Finally, two weeks off in the actual summer! And the last two weeks before Trixie had to go back to school. She was so looking forward to it.

_________

Dan still had Trixie from Friday until Sunday night. It had become almost a habit that Chloe would spend much of the weekend with Lucifer, at least since he had revealed himself to her. They would talk, share a drink or two, sometimes he would make dinner for them, or she would bring take-out to the penthouse. She found herself looking forward to the times when they were alone together, without the distraction of their co-workers or the priority of working on a case. 

He was different with her these days. At work, there was the familiar banter, somewhat less sexual than his former cheeky innuendos, but his humour was irrepressible and at times, he just couldn’t help himself, he simply had to tease her.

But when they were alone, his manner was far more considerate than he had been since the very first day they met. He seemed more relaxed with her, more willing to share his thoughts and worries. He even expressed his feelings about things, which was not like Lucifer at all. She found that she liked this side of him, especially as she seemed to be the only one (besides Linda, of course) that he really opened up to.

They talked about Lilith, though she had not resurfaced. Neither had Maze, not since the day she had accompanied her ‘mother’ to the penthouse. Chloe could still remember the sound of them laughing as they had left the apartment….

Lucifer had done some research on the human name she had given him, Stella Benister, but had come up empty-handed. He had even called Ella and asked her to run the name through the police computer, but again no luck. It disturbed him more than he cared to admit.

“She hasn’t been to see Linda either, and I find that a bit surprising. She did spent almost every hour with her after the attack. I talked to Linda this morning and she hasn’t heard from her, not so much as a phone call,” Chloe told him, watching the concern on his face. She knew that it was really bothering him, and the more he told her of his former life in Hell, the more she understood his previous reluctance to show emotion, other than outrage or anger. Of course, feelings would be seen as a weakness to be exploited.

“I’m worried, Chloe,” he said quietly. “I have no idea what Lilith is capable of, or what she wants……it’s the not knowing. And Maze, she’s has been pissed at me before, but not like this. Maze knows things about me. Things I’d rather have Lilith not be privy to.”

“I understand,” she said, putting a gentle hand on his arm, “It never feels right being kept in the dark by people we are close to…..When Dan let me think I was crazy for suspecting Malcolm was a dirty cop, even though he believed it himself….It ended up destroying our marriage…..” Her voice trailed off.

Lucifer felt a pang of conscience, thinking of all the times he had not shared things with her, things she needed to know. He had hurt her enough in the past, even though he had not meant to. He vowed quietly to himself to never think so little of her again, and almost without thinking, pulled her to him in a warm hug. They both held each other for a few moments.

_________

The first week of her vacation went splendidly. It was still sometimes uncomfortably hot, but at least the temps had not crept over the 100-degree mark again. Chloe loved the chance to spend time with her daughter, though she had to admit to herself that she really missed spending her days working with Lucifer. She found herself thinking of him often as she and Trixie did summer vacation things. They went to the LA Zoo, to the beach, and of course, shopping for school supplies and new clothes for the coming year.

They had stopped for ice cream on one of their excursions, when Trixie asked her “Mum, what happened to Maze? Do you think she’ll ever come home?”

The question took Chloe by surprise, and she wasn’t quite sure how to answer the child. She decided the truth, at least part of the truth, was the best way. “I don’t know what she’s doing, honey. But I’m sure she’ll come back eventually, she did leave the rent for this month, and her note said she’d be back, so I guess we’ll just have to wait and see when.”

Trixie mulled this over for a moment. “I hope she comes back soon. Maze is so cool. She’s FIERCE!”

“Yes, sweetie, she is that,” Chloe smiled at her.

_______

The weekend of August 18 was rapidly approaching and as the day of the solar eclipse got closer, Trixie’s excitement ramped up whenever she talked about it.

May and John Leung, Carlie’s parents, had told her their own kids talked of nothing else. Olivia had given Dan the Monday off and he would meet them there with Trixie in tow. The observatory wasn’t allowing chairs or telescopes, but they would provide a seating area for a couple of hundred people, and everyone could bring a blanket to set up on any available spots on the grounds. They were expecting a lot of people, it seemed. Chloe was glad they had already purchased their certified viewing glasses, and she reminded herself to make sure to bring plenty of water. Monday was supposed to be another perfect cloudless day, and it really did feel like something special was going to happen.

The Sunday before the eclipse, Chloe and Lucifer spent a very enjoyable afternoon as guests at Linda’s for her favourite Sunday brunch of lox and bagels. The detective laughed when she saw the spread.

“Well, you were certainly telling the truth – do you have this every Sunday?” she said with a smile, “Not that I’m complaining, it really is good!” She noted that Lucifer was already helping himself to the food and sat down on the couch beside him.

The three exchanged pleasantries as they ate, with a few pithy commentaries on the state of life and the world in 2017. 

“Are you going to watch the eclipse?” Linda asked, looking at both of them.

Lucifer snorted. “No big deal, I’ve seen hundreds of them—”

“Well, we aren’t all a billion years old, Lucifer,” Chloe interrupted. “I’ve never seen one. Trixie is nearly beside herself, she’s so excited about ‘Dark Star’ – she’s even looked up the Latin name…..it’s kind of cool seeing her so interested. She’s been reading up on it for the last couple of weeks…”

Linda was smiling. “I’m going to sit right here on my balcony with my latte from the shop on the corner and watch with my officially certified cool eclipse glasses. You?”

“I’m meeting Dan and Trixie at the Griffith Observatory. Trixie’s new best friend and her family will be there – well, I guess a lot of people will. It’ll be fun! We have our glasses too. I’m going to head up a couple of hours early and see if I can get us some seats, if I get lucky…….if not, I guess we’ll just find a nice spot on the grass somewhere….

“I’ve got to admit, even I’m looking forward to it, it’s supposed to be pretty special,” she looked over at Lucifer. “Hey, don’t suppose you want to come with me to watch it? I’ve got an extra set of glasses—”

Lucifer squirmed a bit, obviously weighing the possibility of encountering many children versus spending a morning with Chloe……

The women both laughed when he finally said “If you don’t mind, I think the terrace at the penthouse will be a nice private viewing spot, and, really, I have seen a number of them before…..There was one, oh, about five thousand years ago that actually stopped a battle…”

Linda and Chloe both did the eye roll at the same time.

“I think it’s time to open the wine,” Linda whispered to her.

_________

It was just after 6:00 on the morning of the 21st and Chloe was just putting the coffee on when her phone rang.

“Hey, Dan, what’s up?”

“I am,” he said, “Trixie got me up an hour ago. She’s all ready to get up there. Me, I need another coffee before I do anything.”

“I was just about to make some breakfast before heading out, but hey, why don’t I just put some fruit together, maybe those breakfast chewy things that Trixie likes. You think you could stop and grab some coffee? I’ll bring some juice. We could have a breakfast picnic….”

“Sounds great……Um, is, uh, Lucifer going to be there?”

Chloe laughed. “No, he’s giving it a hard pass, he’s afraid there’ll be children there, lots of children. You know what he’s like…He said” (and she added in her horribly bad fake British accent) “I do believe my terrace will be ever so much more pleasant, detective.” 

They both chuckled. “Ok, see you in about an hour.”

__________

It was something Chloe had said about the eclipse. It had bothered Lucifer for the rest of Sunday, something niggling in the back of his mind.

It didn’t hit him until he awoke early the next morning. 

The Dark Star. Chloe had said that Beatrice looked up the Latin meaning. Not of the eclipse, but of dark star. 

Stella Tenebris in the Latin. 

Stella Benister in Los Angeles. She would make her move today. During the eclipse.  
_______

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last two chapters will be up tomorrow, just doing a final edit, but getting bleary-eyed (it's been a long and busy too weeks and it's after 11:00 p.m. where I live).


	9. Chapter 9

It was only about a 40-minute drive or less up to the observatory in Griffith Park and a pleasant trip in the early morning, though as she neared her destination, the traffic got heavier. Seemed like everyone had the idea to arrive early in hopes of getting a seat. But she did still manage to find a spot in the parking lot, which was a bit of a bonus. 

She grabbed her carryall containing juice, water, some fruit and granola bars, slung it over her shoulder and wandered towards the outdoor viewing area, surprised to find plenty of chairs still left unoccupied, though they were being claimed quickly.

She heard a loud “Mum!!!” and turned to see Dan and Trixie following her route from the parking lot. They must have arrived minutes after she did. Trixie barreled into her with a hug, and they claimed four chairs at the end of one row, the fourth for Carlie if she wanted to sit with them. So far there was no sign of the Leung family, though Trixie was sure they’d be there soon.

“Why don’t you guys get settled, the coffee shop is open, I’ll go grab us a couple,” Dan suggested.

The park around the observatory was filling up fast, parents and children, couples, groups of older teens, a lovely varied crowd, all talking excitedly about the eclipse. The atmosphere was carnival and the day was beautiful, the sky completely devoid of even the smallest wisp of cloud.

“There they are!!” Trixie shouted and dashed over as the Leung clan appeared, the twin boys whispering to themselves and Carlie waving excitedly as she spotted her friend. Chloe threw her bag onto one of the seats behind them and waved at Mae. By the time Dan returned with the coffee, they were a happy group in two rows of four. Mae had brought a bag of fruit and snacks as well.

The eclipse didn’t start until 9:05. John Leung reminded all the children that they were absolutely NOT to look at the sun without their protective eyewear and they all nodded. “Dad, this must be the zillionth time you told us!”

“That’s because I don’t want you to damage your eyes!” 

Carlie let out an exasperated sigh and Chloe chuckled. The girl was so much like Trixie in her mannerisms, the mum in her was glad her daughter had made such a friend. She remembered her own rather lonely childhood at that age, changing schools, often being the shunned ‘new kid’ and never really seeming to fit in anywhere. She was grateful that Trixie had met Carlie.

Once everyone had settled themselves, as the eclipse was about to start, Chloe decided a trip to the ladies room was in order and another coffee, while the crowd was not milling about and the line-ups would have died down somewhat. The fathers nodded at the prospect of more caffeine and Mae Leung offered to come with her so she wouldn’t have to carry all four cups. 

Once inside, they split up while Chloe used the facilities. She emerged from the washroom and headed for the café, but was brought up short by literally running into a bearded man, the coffee he was carrying lidless spilling down his shirt.

“I’m so sorry!” Chloe told him, then realized that he looked very familiar. Bearded, wearing jeans and a casual shirt, piercing blue eyes………

“That’s ok,” he was looking at her quizzically. “Aren’t you the detective, you’re a friend of that strange fellow, the one who thinks he’s the devil?”

Chloe remembered. Eric Johnson. The former oil man who had the delusion that he was God himself. He even had Lucifer believing it for a time.

“Yes, I remember you, Mr. Johnson—”

“Eric, please, Ms ?”

“Decker, Chloe Decker.” She shook his proffered hand. “What are you doing in LA? Lucifer told me you’d gone back to Texas.”

“Oh, I did go back…..When I was, uh, delusional, I gave away all my money. Turns out I gave some of it to some very clever engineers. I’m actually in town to meet with them. But that isn’t until tomorrow, so I thought I’d come up here to watch the eclipse. I suppose I could have seen it from the hotel, but this is so much nicer. It’s really a beautiful spot, don’t you think?”

“I do, I’m here with my daughter, she’s been going on about the Dark Star for weeks now. We could’ve just gone outside, but this does make it more special. I used to come up here with my dad when I was her age. Hey, it’s a once in a lifetime thing, so why not? I remember a lot of happy hours up here…..”

“Well, enjoy it,” Johnson said, “And please give my regards to your strange friend when you see him.”

Chloe nodded and went into the coffee shop where Mae was just paying. She ordered two Grandes for herself and Dan and the two women headed back outside.

“Can I ask you something?” Mae looked at her, her tone somewhat serious.

“Sure you can. What’s up?”

“I’m not quite sure how to ask this, so I’ll just plunge right in….When we were up at the cabin, your daughter kept mentioning someone named ‘Lucifer’ who’s a friend of yours. I, um…..look, you seem like a really nice person. You’re not into anything, well, WEIRD are you?”

Chloe laughed (oh, Mae, if only you knew), but said “No, no, Lucifer is a civilian consultant for the LAPD, we work together. He’s a bit of a showman…….it’s his legal name, but I’m pretty sure it’s not his original name!”

“Oh, I’m so glad!” Mae said with relief. “Like, who would name their kid ‘Lucifer’?” 

Chloe laughed along with her, then almost jumped at the familiar British accent behind her “Well, speak of me and I appear!”

“And here he is in person by some wild coincidence,” she looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “Mae, meet the one and only Lucifer Morningstar.”

“Delighted, I’m sure,” he gave the woman his most charming grin and said something in a language Chloe did not understand, but she did her classic eye roll as she saw Mae’s face redden. He really can’t turn it off, can he, she thought to herself.

“You speak Cantonese?” Mae asked with surprise.

“I’ve picked up a few words here and there,” and he winked at her, then looking at Chloe, “Detective, a word please.” 

She nodded at Mae, who looked almost disappointed as Lucifer drew Chloe aside.

“What are you doing here, Lucifer?” she asked when Mae began making her way back to their seats. “And what did you say to her?”

“I just told her that it’s always a pleasure to meet a lovely woman…….” But his face was serious, as he lowered his voice. “I’m here with my brother. When I woke up this morning, it was something you said to me yesterday at Linda’s…….How Beatrice was talking about the Dark Star.

“The Latin for ‘dark star’ is Stella Tenebris……..It hit me, something that Lilith said in the penthouse, that the name she goes by these days is Stella Benister. It’s an anagram for Tenebris—”

“You don’t think she’s planning something HERE do you?”

“I’m not sure, but I have this feeling,” pointing at his stomach.

“A ‘gut feeling’?”

“Yes, that is a rather good expression. My ‘gut’ tells me something’s in the wind. I can’t ignore it. Look, I don’t know what exactly it IS. But I wanted to give you a heads up. If she tries anything, anything at all, Amenadiel and I will take care of it. Just keep your eyes open, Chloe…..” and his voice was so serious, the eyes filled with concern.

“I won’t let anything happen, I promise you.” He gave her hand a squeeze, then walked away. Chloe could see Amenadiel looking at them from a hundred yards or so distant, his body language suggesting he too was on full alert.

As she made her way back to their seats, she found her own stomach churning uncomfortably.

“I thought you said Lucifer wasn’t coming today,” Dan whispered as she sat down.

“He’s here with his brother. I guess they decided the eclipse was special after all,” but Dan noted the little worry furrow on Chloe’s brow and knew for sure she wasn’t telling him the whole story…….

__________

“If you see her, brother,” Lucifer said to Amenadiel, “freeze things immediately – I don’t want anything to happen to any of these people,” Amenadiel nodded. “If you and I work together, we ought to be able to sort this without anyone being the wiser…..”

They separated and began walking the perimeters of the human gathering, senses on high alert for anything untoward.

She was not going to catch them by surprise, no matter how clever she thought she was. Lucifer was determined about that.

______

Totality was approaching, the maximum due at 10:21. Chloe took her viewing glasses off every few minutes, unable to just sit and watch the sky show without feeling somehow …….vulnerable.

It was eerie, as she knew that none of her companions could see anything with the viewing glasses on, the lenses so dark that the only light visible through them was the sun itself. They couldn’t even see her removing her glasses.

She was listening to the ooo’s and ahhh’s of the crowd, all the people she could see looking upwards in the same direction. It was surreal. The air was electric as the sky darkened and she wondered how much greater the effect would be if they were along the 100% line of totality……..Even at 70%, the birds had gone quiet and there was a strange energy in the air. She felt very much as if she was in some sort of campy sci-fi film, the undercurrent was physical as well as mental…….

She looked around and saw Lucifer and his brother in the distance, standing a few feet apart.

Satisfied that everything was still ok, she donned her glasses and leaned back to enjoy the moments of totality. What remained of the sun disc was only a thin crescent. It truly was a remarkable sight. She reached for Trixie’s hand and gave it a squeeze, smiling as the child said “Mummy, this is soooooooo awesome!”

________

Lucifer looked up at the sun for just a moment and could see that the moon nearly covered it.

Something brushed past him, a faint scent of incense in its wake. “Now, brother!” he yelled and Amenadiel’s wings burst forth, locking the perception of all the humans, as they themselves vanished from human sight. 

Not that anyone was looking at them, all the eyes of all the people there were fixed on the amazing display going on above them.

He could see Lilith and Mazikeen standing twenty or so feet in front of him. Lilith was smiling. It was not a pleasant sight. Maze was positioned a few feet to her right, her stance relaxed. 

Lilith/Stella was in her demon form, wings out, her feet the large talons of a great owl. Her right hand held a nasty looking weapon, a curved sword, much like an Egyptian khopesh, except instead of a blunted end, the tip terminated in several dangerous-looking points, and both sides of the blade were obviously cutting edges. Lucifer was familiar with weaponry that stretched back to the very dawn of humanity and he knew this blade could inflict real damage, whatever side it was wielded from, even if thrown, and by the way she held it at the ready he surmised she was proficient in its use.

“Nice of you both to come to my little party,” she purred. “Good catch on the Dark Star thing, Samael, I did make it as obvious as I could without just sending you an engraved invite.” Her tone was derisive.

She turned to stare at Amenadiel, his wings stretched up and out as he held Time at a virtual standstill. 

“Love what you do with time, angel. Adds a certain magic to the whole affair… Have to admit, you are certainly a very handsome fellow. Maze here tells me you have some interesting…..attributes,” her voice took on a distinctly lascivious tone as she looked him up and down. 

She noted Amenadiel’s involuntary shudder. “Oh, right,” she said sarcastically, “you’re the goody good one……too bad.”

She turned back to Lucifer who was watching her, his features hawk-like, the red fire beginning to glitter dimly in his dark eyes. It was then he noticed the necklace she wore, and felt a jolt of adrenaline rock him as he saw what it was made from – the centre piece that he had thought was a silver tooth, was actually a long white wing feather, flanked by two smaller ones, also glowing brilliant white, then two of pale gold and three of copper on either side. He knew with certainty that the white feathers were his. 

He and the three silly sodding idiots Father had sent before him had been the ones to give the demon her power. She had used the divine energy that lived within even the smallest of the plumes to animate her demon children and to keep herself alive throughout the ages, while she fed on human soul energy. And of course, the feathers of an archangel would be the centerpiece, being the most powerful. The dark realization hit his body before his mind grasped it, and Lucifer, for the first time in his very long existence, felt physically nauseous. 

He HAD been the one to introduce evil to the earth, without even knowing he had done it. 

Oh, Father, no wonder you were so angry! Oh God, oh God, oh God……what have I done?

His mind was screaming, though he kept his face a stony mask, but Lilith’s smirk told him she had seen his sudden understanding. 

“So sorry for helping send you into The Pit,” she smiled, “but at least I provided a lot of company for you in your loneliness……” She stopped speaking as his eyes glowed redder.

“What do you want, Lilith? TELL ME, DEMON!”  
_________

 

Chloe felt a jolt of electricity go from the centre of her forehead through her whole body and realized someone was standing directly in front of her, and that someone was removing her eclipse glasses.

She was utterly taken aback to find Eric Johnson smiling down at her. “Come on,” he said, “I think you’ll want to see this – don’t worry, no one will miss you,” and he nodded towards the rest of the audience, including her daughter. The hundreds of people, all with their safety eye gear on, looked……..frozen. At least they were not moving at all. Chloe was reminded of looking at a crowd in an old-school 3D movie. 

Her own fidgety child was staring upwards along with everyone else, as if they were all exhibits in a wax museum than really alive at an actual event. It was…..disconcerting.

“Come on,” Johnson said, “I think you need to see what’s about to happen.”

Chloe felt ungainly as the man grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. She was tingling and it felt as if her feet were made of lead when she tried to walk. Taking a deep breath, she looked around for Lucifer. 

But it was Amenadiel she spotted, maybe two hundred feet away, his great dark wings extended as far as they would stretch. She saw the devil’s familiar form standing a few feet to his left. Then she spotted the Lilith woman and Maze, forming a rough square with the two brothers, as Johnson pulled her along with him, threading through the oblivious people on their folding festival chairs and field of blankets, all staring unmoving at the sky show, unable to see them.

Chloe knew that Amenadiel could literally almost freeze time for human beings, but why was SHE able to move, when hundreds of others could not? Somehow she found herself just following quietly behind Eric Johnson as they both moved towards the group of otherworldly beings.

She could tell from Lucifer’s body language that he was angry, his stance was stiff and guarded. None of the four saw the two of them moving closer, but she heard Lucifer yelling “TELL ME, DEMON!”

She could see Lilith brandishing a wicked looking sword as Lucifer shouted, the words reverberating in the air. She wanted to run towards him, but Johnson grabbed her arm in a surprisingly strong grip and held her in place. “Just watch,” he whispered in her ear.

It was then she noted Lilith raising the nasty-looking blade, pointing it at Amenadiel, at one of his wings. It looked as if she was aiming for the central joint. In the nanosecond before she threw it, her stance changed slightly and by the time the blade left her hand it was headed in an arc directly for Lucifer. (I’m here, her mind screamed in panic, Lucifer can die when I’m around, oh, please, please get out of the way!!!)

At the precise moment the blade began its flight, thrown with enough force that it was spinning end over end, Mazikeen leapt for it. No, not for IT – she leapt in front of Lucifer, turning as she jumped, her stance ultimate defense. She moved so quickly that she was almost a blur, landing half a dozen feet in front of him, facing Lilith. 

As her feet hit the ground, the blade connected, embedding itself directly in the centre of her chest, thrown with such force that the end of the blade protruded through her back.

Chloe saw Maze briefly look down in disbelief as her dark blood erupted in a sudden geyser. Without a sound she fell backwards and it was obvious that she was dead before she even hit the ground.

She heard Lucifer scream “NO!!!!” in a voice so loud it echoed off the observatory dome, as the great white wings burst out of his back. He launched himself at an utterly surprised Lilith, his face a seething picture of fury, eyes flaming red.

Almost too quickly for her to make out, Chloe saw his left hand grip the demon’s throat before Lilith’s wings could make any escape possible. He was yelling something in a language Chloe could not comprehend, his voice all but reverberating across the hillside. With a final shout, he jammed his right hand over Lilith’s face, as the onyx in his ring began to pulse with a dim white fire. Lilith was twisting as hard as she could, but Lucifer’s left hand held her throat in a relentless grip.

Chloe watched in horrified fascination, seeing tendrils of white light begin to seep out of the demon’s forehead, then curl around and enter the glowing stone, as if the onyx itself was a tiny black hole sucking her energy away. Lilith seemed unable to move, as Lucifer kept chanting something in a language full of clicks and growls, a language few human beings had ever heard. 

The demon’s brown wings vanished as he chanted, followed by the taloned owl feet. After a few long moments, the light emanating from Lilith’s forehead simply stopped. As Lucifer removed his hand, Chloe saw the face of an ordinary and very frightened woman, her mouth opened in the wide O of a silent scream. Lucifer let his left hand drop from her neck, tearing the feather necklace from her as he did so. As it came free, the form of the woman/demon became ashen grey, then simply dissolved into a pile of dust.

Lucifer turned to face them, his features calm, wings retracted, the red eyes dimmed to their usual dark brown. He was panting.

Their eyes connected for a moment, before his immediately shot to Mazikeen’s crumpled form. She lay where she had fallen, the left side of her face now without the glamour that hid her demon countenance, the eye on the human side open and staring. 

The Johnson fellow was kneeling over her. He had already yanked the khopesh from her still body and tossed it aside, the mortal wound it inflicted gaping, dark blood pooled around the horrific hole in her torso. 

Lucifer had dropped to his knees beside her and with a gentle hand closed the eye that now stared lifelessly up at him. “To the end,” he whispered to her, “dear Maze, you fulfilled your Oath to me…..”

Johnson looked at both his sons before stretching out his hands over the demon’s dreadful wound. Lucifer, Amenadiel and Chloe gasped simultaneously as the wound began to close, the blood vanishing as he moved his hands over her chest. A golden light emanated from her, obliterating her dead form for a brief moment. Johnson looked like he was concentrating intently, before tapping the tip of his right forefinger on the centre of the demon’s forehead. A tiny blob of light popped from the finger, danced for a moment, then seemed to be absorbed by her body……….

With the rasping gasp of a drowning victim finally reaching the surface, Maze abruptly sat up, her immediate instinct to push the stranger away. Yet as she looked at the smiling face that hovered above her, all she could manage was “what the fuck?” as her hands automatically went to the gaping hole in the centre of her chest and came up clean.

“How do you feel?” Johnson asked her with the gentlest of smiles.

Lucifer and Amenadiel each took an arm and helped her to her feet. She shook them off as she looked down at herself in utter confusion. Then she reached both hands up to her hairline and ran them lightly over herself, truly surprised that she was intact.

“Wh-what happened? The blade, it – it went all the way through—” Her voice held wonder as she looked at the being who had healed her.

“Hello, Mazikeen,” Johnson smiled. “Couldn’t just let you vanish into nothing after what you did. So, welcome back.” And he winked at the two angels, before turning to Chloe.

“I think you’d better get back to your seat before Amenadiel releases Time,” then to Lucifer he said “Go with her, son, she’s bound to be a bit wobbly. Your brother and I will look after this one.”

Lucifer nodded and took Chloe’s arm, noting that she was in fact a bit shaky on her feet. He slipped his arm around her shoulder, hers going around his waist, and walked her the few hundred feet back to where she’d been sitting.

Everyone was still staring at the sun, making a barely moving tableaux. “I dare say you’re going to have a lot of questions about this morning,” he whispered as he helped her into her seat at the end of a row, handing her the eclipse glasses that had fallen to the ground beside her chair. He sat on the grass beside her as they both looked over and watched Amenadiel retract his wings, Chloe with a sharp intake of breath as the energy around her changed.

She put her glasses back on, and felt Lucifer’s right hand grasp her left. He held on tightly as they sat in silence through the minutes of totality.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Final chapter will be up later tonight! thanks for staying with me so far!


	10. Chapter 10

When the moments of totality were over, most of the crowd still wore their eye coverings, but Dan removed his. To his surprise, he saw Lucifer sitting cross-legged on the ground next to Chloe’s chair, his hand locked in hers. Dan hadn’t heard him come up and wondered (possibly for the thousandth time) how the hell the club owner managed to seemingly just appear from nowhere. He was about to reach around behind Trixie, who sat between them, to tap Chloe on the shoulder, but decided against it, instead putting his glasses back on to watch as the eclipse wound down.

As the sky brightened once again, more and more people began taking their eye gear off and a certain restlessness dawned amongst the viewers, some wandering to stretch their legs, some heading towards the observatory’s café, others getting ready to leave. Of course, the kids and diehards would watch to the very end, as would the photographers and filmographers with their piles of complicated gear set up wherever space was available.

Chloe had removed her glasses when the moon’s transit was halfway back across the sun disc. She looked at Trixie, head still tilted upwards, then realized by the sound of her breathing that the child had drifted off to sleep in the warm morning sun.

She looked around for Amenadiel, but he was nowhere to be seen. Neither was Maze. She was fully aware that Lucifer still held her left hand and she gave his a squeeze, putting her right finger to her lips and pointing at Trixie, gesturing that they should move themselves out of earshot.

Dan heard Chloe get up, but left his glasses on for another few minutes, before removing them and looking around. He spotted Chloe and Lucifer, standing well away from the nearest blanket, having what appeared to be a rather intense conversation. He saw Chloe nodding at something Lucifer had said, before wrapping her arms around him. Dan saw him hesitate for a moment before he did the same. He noted that Lucifer’s eyes were shut as he held Chloe. It wasn’t a long moment, but Dan could see the feeling in the contact, and he smiled quietly to himself, hoping they had both finally sorted things between them…..

Trixie brought him out of his reverie as she whipped off her glasses and said, “Dad, I’m really hungry!”

“Me too, sweetheart,” he told her, reaching for Chloe’s carryall and rifling through it. He handed the child a box of juice…… “Now, would you like a banana? An apple? Oh, here’s one of those granola bars you like so much……” She tore the wrapping off with gusto and smiled at her dad as she bit into it.

He wondered to himself if it would now be ok to invite Ella to the precinct’s annual summer barbecue and decided why not?

He glanced over to where Lucifer and Chloe still stood and noticed a bearded man with jeans approach the pair, both of them looking at him with surprise.

_________

Johnson was smiling as he stretched out his hand to shake Lucifer’s. “So glad to run into you,” he told him, “I met your lady friend here outside of the coffee shop earlier, but I’m glad to see you again too. I hope you got everything sorted out with your dad…..”

Lucifer looked at him, not sure what to say. Johnson mistook his confusion and said “oh, I’m in town to meet with some people I gave some of my money too. I guess Ms. Decker didn’t tell you. It was quite a show, wasn’t it?”

He saw the looks on their faces. “The eclipse I mean,” noting they both seemed puzzled. “What did you think I was talking about?”  
___________

 

Linda Martin watched the eclipse from the balcony of her condo, which faced conveniently east. As totality approached at 10:21 PDT, she found herself, for some strange reason, thinking of Lucifer and wondering what he looked like with his wings. Oh, he is so going to show me those wings, she thought to herself…..

When the moon’s passage across the sun finally became a last little cookie bite, Linda removed her viewing glasses, deciding that it was finally time to do something she had been thinking about since her brunch with Chloe. 

She grabbed her purse, headed to her car and drove across town, praying that she was doing the right thing, but needing to do it, whether it was right or wrong.

She got to the house in a well-to-do neighbourhood and pulled into the driveway, then took a deep breath before approaching the front door. Another deep breath, and she knocked, hoping that Charlotte Richards would be at home. She knew the attorney had taken a leave of absence from Richards & Wheeler and Linda was glad for that, as it would have been a lot more difficult to approach the lawyer at her office. 

Weeks had passed since the attack and Linda had thought about this for a long time. When the door opened, Charlotte looked almost alarmed to see who was standing on her front step.

“Let me introduce myself, I’m Dr. Linda Martin – I’m not here to threaten you or anything like that, I just want to talk….”

“I know who you are,” Charlotte told her. “Do I need my attorney?” She looked Linda up and down as if not quite sure what she was doing there.

“No,” the doctor replied, “I really just want to talk to you. May I come in?”

Charlotte nodded and stood aside to allow her to enter.

“What did you want to talk about?”

Linda cleared her throat, “What I really wanted to say is that I don’t blame you for anything that happened…….I’m a psychiatrist and, while I’ve never known a case like yours, I do realize that you weren’t quite ‘yourself’…” (Charlotte missed the twinkle in Linda’s eye.)

“I wouldn’t have testified against you, I told the police that. And I’m not intending to bring a civil suit….”

“But I’m told I nearly killed you, even though, really, I don’t remember ever meeting you, let alone attacking you……..I would automatically assume you’d file a civil suit, at least to cover your medical bills…..”

Linda managed a laugh (the hardest part was over). “Don’t worry about that, a good friend helped me out with the medical bills, and I have absolutely no intention of suing you, Ms. Richards. My conscience wouldn’t let me……..And, as you can see, I’m fine…….fast healer, it would seem,” she said with a pleasant smile. 

“Look, I’m not offering my services to you professionally or anything, but if you want to just talk, I’d be happy to listen……”

When their eyes met, Charlotte could tell that the doctor was being sincere. She was good at reading people, had been when she was a cop, became even better at it as a lawyer. Still, it puzzled her. “Why would you do that?” she asked.

Linda grinned at her. “If it had happened a couple of years ago, I might not feel the same. But I’ve come to realize that life really is stranger than fiction, and right now, I think both of us need to put all this behind us and move on with our lives, wouldn’t you agree, Ms. Richards?”

“I think you’d better call me Charlotte, doctor,” she said.

“Linda, please!” They both smiled and Charlotte bowed her head in acknowledgement.

“Would you like something to drink? Tea? A glass of wine? I just made a Greek salad for lunch. If you’re hungry, I’d be pleased to share it with you....” Linda nodded happily.

“Wine sounds lovely……Charlotte.”

The doctor smiled and followed the lawyer into the kitchen. (This is going a lot smoother than I thought it would…) She found that she couldn’t stop smiling.

____________

 

He got the text just after 8:00, as he was thinking of pouring himself a drink. ‘Trixie at sleepover with BF. Maze home, Amen here 2. U up 4 some company?’ 

He immediately texted a ‘Yes!!!!’ (adding a grinning devil emoji).

Not that he minded spending an evening alone. It did not bother him any more, the way it would have only a few short weeks ago. Her text had caught him merely sitting on the terrace, looking up at the night sky and fervently wishing he could see more of it, see it the way it looked in the desert. 

He had been thinking of the day’s events and of Lilith, and his shock at finding out how he had unknowingly helped her set humanity on a course of self-destruction.

He might have loathed himself for it, as he had after killing Uriel. But he knew his guilt was circumstantial at most, so circumstantial in fact that he had never even considered that he had played any part in the eons of drama that followed, let alone enabled it. He had deemed the streak of nihilism that ran through people a flaw in human design, another of God’s Greatest Mistakes.

He had been such a dismal fool. 

But he had not been a deliberate one, and he had finally learned enough not to blame himself for what had been stupidity and not intentional malice. 

Still, it was ok, he thought, to want to kick your own ass retroactively…..

When she finally stepped off the elevator, he could not help his involuntary intake of breath. She looked so lovely, in black drawstring trousers of light summer linen and a silk shirt of deep teal, rolled up above the elbows, the colour making her eyes seem as dark as the moonlit ocean. She wore her hair unbound around her shoulders, he liked that very much.

His appreciation must have shown on his face, as she looked perhaps a little shy. Then she held up a white box about six inches square and said “I brought a treat for you.”

At his raised eyebrow, she told him “There’s a little restaurant Trixie and I sometimes eat at. And they happen to make THE best pastries…..I know you have a bit of a sweet tooth, so I thought I’d bring some for you.” She put the little box on the bar.

“Shall I make coffee? ....Or would you prefer something a little stronger?” 

Chloe nodded at the latter and undid the ribbon that held the box closed, opened the lid and flattened it to reveal two pastries topped with cherries and blueberries, drizzled with white icing and ribbons of dark chocolate…..Lucifer’s eyes lit up.

“Oh, I have a Bordeaux that screams for dark chocolate! Mmmmmm,” he added as he snatched a corner of the confection and stuffed it into his mouth with a chuckle, as Chloe did the same.

“Aren’t these wonderful?” she forced through a mouthful of drizzle and berries and reached for two glasses, as Lucifer was opening a 2010 St. Emilion. “This will need to breathe a bit,” he said, as he set the bottle on the bar.

He took his preferred scotch and poured them each a short finger. “This will do nicely while we wait,” handing her a glass. “I’m glad you came over tonight.”

She smiled at him, “So am I. Could you please, I mean, I heard and saw most of it, but could you please tell me what exactly happened today? You can start with Eric Johnson, if you don’t mind….”

Lucifer let out a snort of laughter, grabbed their tumblers and nodded towards the balcony. He followed her to the chairs that stood beside the small outdoor table. It was a cozy spot, shielded by plants from any prying eyes, though high enough up that there were not many, with a good and nearly unobstructed view of the western sky.

It was moonless of course. Solar eclipses only happened on the New Moon. 

He looked at her and smiled. “Seems Dad was lurking about today and decided to borrow Eric Johnson’s body again……A bit coincidental that Johnson turned up in LA today, of all days.”

“I ran into him at the café before the eclipse started. He said he was in town to meet with some engineers tomorrow. Didn’t seem to be anything special about him, just a guy…..like he was when we saw him after. You’re telling me that you didn’t know he, I mean your dad, was there?”

“Nope. I suppose that’s why Dad chose him,” he said, “So the mysterious Johnson chap I met at the hospital, turns out he actually WAS Dad, not some guy being controlled by the healing part of the Flaming Sword…”

“And you’re saying your ‘dad’ – God? – just, um, ‘borrowed’ his body?” At Lucifer’s nod, she added “Well, we all saw him bring Maze back to life, she was definitely dead, and I’m pretty sure that no human could have done THAT.” He nodded again.

“And if she hadn’t jumped in front of me, I would be dead instead,” wondering if his Father would have brought him back too, before pushing the unworthy thought aside.

“So she came back home with my brother, did she?”

Chloe smiled, “They seemed like they were arguing…..But your brother looked really happy. And I got the definite idea Maze wasn’t really angry with him. If you, um, get my drift……” Lucifer chuckled.

“They were pretty much ignoring me, so I thought I’d make myself scarce. Besides, I wanted to see you anyway,” she was smiling at him. He stood up, indicating they should go inside. She followed after him and accepted a glass of the grand cru Bordeaux, inhaling its delicious fragrance before taking a sip. “Mmmm, this is really good,” she told him.

“Now take a bite of the pastry and see what happens.” She did as she was told and made another appreciative sound. “Oh, this is really, REALLY good!” as she took another sip.

He looked at her over the edge of his wine glass, as they finished the last of the pastry. “How is it that you came to be watching the whole thing? You should have been ‘suspended in time’ with everyone else……”

“I could feel someone standing in front of me, something touched my forehead and it started…….buzzing, for lack of a better word. Then I could feel whoever it was removing the glasses and there was Mr. Johnson right in front of me. I don’t know how he got there, he was just there. I remember him pulling me up. I felt very strange, like I couldn’t quite move properly…..

“He told me that I needed to see what was about to happen.”

Lucifer looked at her, a puzzled expression on his face, then the look brightened as he said, “Well, it would have been dreadfully hard trying to describe it to you, as it turns out. I’m….I think I’m glad that you saw……...”

“I’m still not sure WHAT I saw, Lucifer. I thought she was going to kill you….It all happened so fast.”

“Faster than you think!” They both laughed.

It took them another hour to kill the rest of the bottle of St. Emilion and Chloe noted with appreciation that each two-inch pour tasted different from the one before. They spoke of the day’s events and Lucifer shared with her his part in what Lilith had done, grateful that it elicited in her not horror, but a quiet understanding. She was special, so very special….

“I only have one more question for you tonight, Lucifer,” she said in a teasing tone as their evening wore down. “And I want you to tell me the truth……”

“Very well, detective, and your question is?”

She looked at him with a serious expression, but her eyes were twinkling. “What is it that you really want? What is YOUR deepest desire?” She tried wiggling her eyebrows the way he did, but couldn’t quite get it right.

Lucifer wore a little half smile, but his eyes were serious. 

“You,” he said, “I want you, Chloe.”

“I was hoping you’d say that,” she answered softly, standing on tiptoe to plant the faintest whisper of a kiss on his lips, then pulled away.

Lucifer was surprised by the jolt that went through his body at the feather-light touch.

His smile got a little wider. 

“It’s not wise, my dear, to tease the Devil,” he said, his voice low and sensuous, as he allowed a dim red flame to show in his eyes. “You might just get burned……”

“I’m counting on that,” she laughed as she walked into his outstretched arms.

___________


	11. Epilogue

The sound of voices was enough to wake Chloe up, the sun now high in sky. The bed beside her was still warm and she couldn’t help but grin, thinking back on the previous night. It had been dawn before they had finally fallen asleep, arms wrapped around each other. 

It really had been the best night of her life – in truth, the first half hour had been the best night of her life…..

She heard laughter from the other room and looked around for something to cover herself with, realizing that most of her clothes (and Lucifer’s too, she thought with a smile) were still in the living room where they had discarded them. She spotted the shirt from his silk pajamas hanging from one of the bedposts. The sleeves were about four inches too long, so she rolled them up above the elbow, and began doing up the buttons. It was almost knee-length on her, modest enough she decided, until she could find wherever she had flung her clothes.

She padded out to the living room where Lucifer, clad in the other half of the PJ’s and his black silk robe, sat on the couch having what seemed an amiable chat with the man they knew as Eric Johnson. They were both chuckling at something she hadn’t quite heard. Without thinking, she came up behind Lucifer, bent and kissed the top of his head, wrapping her arms around him from behind and whispering “good morning.”

The Johnson fellow was beaming at her and she couldn’t help but return the smile. Whatever they had been discussing was obviously a pleasant subject, judging by how relaxed and genuinely happy Lucifer seemed.

“There she is, the beautiful Chloe,” Johnson said brightly and grinned at Lucifer. She noted the latter’s face becoming a little flushed and said with teasing surprise, “Lucifer! I can’t believe it – are you actually blushing????”

“Certainly NOT! The Devil does NOT blush!” he replied with mock outrage.

“Son,” Johnson said sternly, though his grin broadened, “Are you telling your first lie? Because from where I’m sitting, you are in fact blushing…..”

“He IS blushing,” Chloe said as she moved around the couch to stand in front of Lucifer “I think it’s kind of sweet,” but when she glanced at him he wore his cheekiest come-hither look, a hint of flame sparkling behind the dark eyes, as he ran his tongue along the inside of his lower lip and quirked an eyebrow at her. Chloe felt her cheeks burning and knew she had to be beet-red.

“Who’s blushing now?” he said in his silkiest bedroom voice, “Eh, Detective? Feeling a bit…. rattled, are we?”

She had to suddenly look down at the floor, but she couldn’t stop the smile.

“Now, son,” Johnson said, “It really isn’t polite to embarrass such a lovely woman—”

“Wait a minute. Did you just call him ‘son’? Are you Eric, or—?”

“Chloe, meet Dad,” Lucifer said with a smile, “He, um, ‘borrowed’ Mr. Johnson’s body again….”

“And it’s quite a good body,” God said, looking down at himself, “Johnson has kept himself in great shape. I realized yesterday at the observatory that I needed a vehicle and it was just a happy coincidence that he was there…..ah, eclipses, always get a big audience for them, they can be quite a show, wouldn’t you agree?”

Chloe was staring goggle-eyed at him, not sure at all what to say, but wondering how much stranger her life was going to become. She was after all, sitting in a penthouse on a bright sunny morning in August, chatting with God and one of His sons, who just happened to be the Devil. Could it get any weirder?

“Oh, I’m sure it could, my dear,” God said and Chloe realized that he had heard her thoughts……… “Don’t worry, my dear,” He laughed, “I don’t listen to every word or watch every picture you have in your head…….but it does come in handy when you’re, well, ‘God’….”

He turned to Lucifer, “I heard what you said to your brother. How you hoped that ‘just once’ I would make my wishes clear to you, so that you could choose what to do. That’s one of the reasons I came by. I would have dropped in last evening, but, well, I didn’t want to interrupt the two of you,” as he looked from one to the other with a knowing smile.

Lucifer looked suddenly serious. “Should I pour myself a drink?”

“Why don’t you make that three drinks,” his Father answered, “and you needn’t look so suspicious….. But I suppose that old habits really do die hard.”

Lucifer’s face lit up as he remembered the Macallan 55 he had wanted to share with Chloe and he walked over to the bar, reaching for the Lalique decanter.

“Dad, I know being in a body really isn’t your thing, but there are some advantages to it. This,” looking down at the bottle, “is most certainly one of them – a bottle of this sold at auction last year for over $100,000…”

“Son, surely you didn’t waste such a princely sum on mere alcohol—”

“No, Dad, a guy owed me a favour and this is how he repaid it……you’ll see why in a moment,” he said, offering the older man a glass, then one to Chloe. “I’ve been saving this for a special occasion, and I’d say this fills that criterion quite nicely.”

“I believe a toast is appropriate,” God Johnson said, “How about ‘To New Beginnings’?” 

Lucifer laughed. “Perfect,” he said with a smile as he touched his glass to his father’s and then to Chloe’s.

He watched carefully as a look of astonishment lit up the Deity’s face. “Wow,” He said, “I might even call this concoction ‘divine’ – humans do come up with some truly amazing things when they put their minds to it. I wouldn’t mind a few cases of this for my private stash, wine can get awfully boring after awhile!” And they all laughed.

Yup, Chloe thought. Weirder. I just had to ask, didn’t I….

“You dealt with Lilith brilliantly, son. What did you feel when you took back the energy she’d taken from you?”

Lucifer looked thoughtful, as he tried to put the feelings into actual words. It took a few moments before he said, “At first, when the blade hit Maze, it was overwhelming rage……The next thing I knew, one hand was around her throat, the other on her forehead. I saw Azrael’s ring start to light up and I just KNEW what to do……..It was……..” his forehead wrinkled as he struggled to articulate the feeling.

“I was……calm…..I just knew what I had to do. Not only that, but how to do it as well. I wasn’t angry – I was CERTAIN. It…..it felt……I’ve never quite felt that before…..like being right in the middle of two polar opposites……”

God was smiling at him. “Exactly, son. Mercy and Severity, the two pillars of all existence. When you stand between them,” he said gently, “you use both together to initiate the action. It’s quite simple really, but it is the hardest lesson…..”

Lucifer was staring at him with a dawning understanding. “I had to live it to learn it…..”

“That’s right, son. Words are wonderful, evocative, expressive, but some lessons – the really important ones – can only truly be understood through experience….I could have told you a million things a million times, but you wouldn’t have listened anyway – you have that streak of monumental stubbornness in you….

“Tell me, please, why did you leave Hell when you did? I mean, you could have left at any time, hundreds of years ago or hundreds of years from now. Why, six years ago, was that the very time you chose to, uh, plan your escape?”

Lucifer’s face grew serious, as he answered in a low voice, “I couldn’t take it anymore. The screams, the desperation, the pleading……..It just never stopped. There were times when I felt like I was truly going mad with despair,” he looked at his Father and added, “I didn’t know it at the time, but I wanted to FEEL things – things other than rage and anger and revenge …. I knew that if I didn’t leave, that something inside me would truly die…….. And I wanted to see the sunlight again, feel a cool breeze on my face, sit by the ocean…..I wanted to live, Dad, just live. Can you understand that?”

“Of course I can, Lucifer,” God said softly. “And now here you are, six years, six months and six days – as of yesterday – on the earth. Tell me, do you remember the date you met Chloe?”

“October 25, 2015.” Chloe looked at him as Lucifer rattled off the date without hesitation.

God was smiling. “As of yesterday, that was 666 days ago. Always sixes with you, Lucifer. Have you never wondered about that? You know that 6 is the heart chakra, the central Sephiroth on the Tree of Life? Where the Darkness meets the Light……”

“And is transformed by it,” Lucifer nodded, a smile at the corners of his mouth, though Chloe did not quite follow the meaning as easily as he seemed to.

“Why did you give me my wings back, Dad?”

“I saw what Lilith did, dropping you in the desert, I mean. I figured you’d need them. You know I rarely interfere directly, but this time I made an exception. You’d come so far in your time here – I couldn’t very well just let Lilith ruin it for you. 

“And, well, I knew you cut them off to – how did you put it? ‘flip me the bird’? That was really, to use another very descriptive human expression, cutting your nose off to spite your face! I didn’t heal you in the mental hospital. I did it when you were unconscious in the desert. And I sent you the devil scorpion so you’d have an idea where you were. Figured you could take it from there. I kept watching long enough to make sure you were all right....And, call it a vanity of mine, but I do think they look rather nice, so you’re welcome,” he added, bowing his head to the very surprised Lucifer.

“You heard me thanking you?”

“Of course I did. Just to be clear, I’ve heard everything you’ve ever said to me, my boy, everything. Your, uh, language has been quite colourful at times,” and he gave Lucifer a rather meaningful glare. “Such language, from an angel….it’s a good thing ‘his ears were burning’ is just an expression, as I’m sure mine would have burst into flames more times than even I can count!”

Chloe couldn’t help but giggle at that.

“I was also pleased with the way you handled things with your mother. It was an elegant solution.”

Lucifer said, “I had to do something to stop her from killing half of LA……or storming the Silver City and, well, you know……. so I opened the Rift – at that very moment, it seemed like the right thing to do. I couldn’t destroy her, no matter what she’s done, now or in the past….”

“And I’m glad you didn’t destroy her. What you did was brilliant, as well as just. And with Lilith, you closed a loop, restored a balance you didn’t even know you had tilted……

“It’s going to take years for the Lilith effect to dissipate……..though I am happy to say that some of the people she’s influenced have already begun to wake up, those that weren’t too far down the ‘highway to hell’, as humans would say.”

“So what now, Dad?”

God Johnson beamed at him. “I want you to do whatever you most want to do with your life. If that means staying here on Earth for awhile, well, you have my blessing to do so. No interference from the family, I promise. That is, only if you want to stay here! You can always come home if you’d prefer” (chuckling as he saw Lucifer shaking his head in an emphatic no). 

“May I ask you something?” Chloe was looking at the God-occupied Johnson.

“Of course you may—”

“When we were at the observatory, when you brought Maze back, I saw a little gold bead thingee go from your hand into her forehead – what was that?”

“Oh that,” he took a sidelong glance at Lucifer, “caught that, did you? Yes, of course you did, being such a good detective – I gave Mazikeen a little present, you know, to show my appreciation…..

“I gave her a soul.”

Lucifer’s mouth fell open and then he roared with laughter. “You did WHAT??? And whose soul did you give her, Dad?”

“No one’s, son. I, uh, made one especially for her. It’s up to her what she does with it. She’s the first one of her kind now, a demon with a soul. I suppose there’ll be a lot of chit-chat about this back in the Silver City. But she deserved more than just simply the Void. Demon or not, she has some very admirable qualities. She knew that she would die when that blade hit her, and yet she was willing to sacrifice herself to save you. That has to count for something, son. And I saw how upset you and your brother were…….”

“What’s my part in all of this, if you don’t mind me asking?” Chloe was staring at Johnson. “Why did you put me here? You sent Amenadiel to bless my mom. Was it really about Lucifer?”

God laughed. “It had nothing to do with Lucifer! Honestly. My attention happened to be on LA at the time and I heard your mother’s prayer. She seemed so sad. And she wanted a child very much. So I answered her prayer. That’s all. That you two even met wasn’t part of my Plan, but as it turned out, it was a very happy twist of fate, I think you’d both agree.” He grinned at them.

“But Amenadiel said you never asked him to do such a thing before, or ever again—” Lucifer interjected.

The Deity laughed. “He’s right about that. Usually it’s Gabriel that takes my messages to Mankind. He just happened to be on another assignment at that particular time. So I sent Amenadiel instead. I don’t even remember why him. Really, son.”

“Then why can I be injured when she’s around? Die even? You must’ve had a hand in that, Dad, that’s certainly never happened to me in, oh, I don’t know, forever – so what’s that all about?”

“I think you know the answer to that, son,” his smile was kind and his eyes were twinkling. “You’ve always been a clever one, but even you have to admit, you do have a lot of blind spots when it comes to your own self,” and he laughed out loud.

“I’ll say it again, what I said to you in the hospital. I love you, son, and I’m proud of the man you’ve become. I forgave you a long, long time ago. And I hope that you have finally forgiven me….. 

“You chose the hardest road of them all, and you made a great many mistakes along the way, but in the end you figured it out and did what needed to be done. Learning never ceases, Lucifer, never. And you’ve always had free will. All of you have, the angelic Host, human beings. It’s the way I designed the whole thing….. Every decision, every action, from the smallest gesture to the most grandiose, changes things, changes outcomes……You had to understand that, to learn it for yourself. I’m so proud of you, son.” 

Lucifer was clearly surprised, “I was pretty sure it was you in the hospital, but why didn’t you just tell me it was really you?”

“Why didn’t you show Chloe who you really were?”

“Touché, Dad, touché.” 

Lucifer looked down at the onyx ring. “This was Azrael’s. She gave it to me. That day in the Silver City…..”

“It was a gift from me, it was to be symbolic of her new role as The Angel of Death. The onyx was to give her the ability to control demons while she did her work. I knew she’d given it to you, and, well, you were probably going to need it more than she would. When I broke the Flaming Sword into pieces, I gave her the death blade instead. 

“And now, pleasant as this has been, I must be going. Have to get Eric Johnson back to his hotel in time for his meeting. He’s a good man, and a very nice one, I might add. He’s staying at the Airport Hilton……the company they formed is called ‘Morningstar Energy Systems’ – I thought you might appreciate that! They’ve come up with a way to turn anything into solar panels with an additive in paint. It’s going to change the world, my boy. In less than a decade everyone on the planet is going to have free energy!”

As Eric ‘God’ Johnson made his way towards the elevator, Lucifer looked a bit wistful. 

“Don’t stay a stranger, son. Any time you want to see me, come on upstairs. But not for a few weeks…….I’ve decided to take a page from your book and I’m taking myself on a little vacation—”

“You can do that?” Chloe looked as if she might fall over.

“Certainly, my dear. I can do anything. I’m God, remember?” 

To Lucifer he said “I’m going to visit your mother. Seems she’s having a lot of fun building her new universe……I thought she might want a little help populating it, if you know what I mean,” and he wiggled his eyebrows to Lucifer’s laughter.

“I’ve got some issues of my own that I need to set right.” He smiled as he stepped into the lift. “It was because of you, son, that I remembered how much I still love that stubborn, frustrating, willful, wonderful goddess, and I think it’s about time I told her so…..”

The elevator doors closed, and Lucifer wasted no time pulling Chloe into an embrace, whispering, “I’m glad the Old Man finally left, you and I have a good deal of unfinished business…”

I heard that, said a Voice in his head. 

Lucifer visualized his hand giving the middle finger salute as he led Chloe back to bed. 

Tsk, tsk, your language, boy! A soft laugh, and then the Voice was gone.

_______

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, hope you all enjoyed it. Have been vacillating on a possible follow up, set maybe two, three, five years in the future, but don’t think I’ll be writing anything else before Season 3 starts (well, unless my Muse won’t leave me alone that is). Thanks for taking the ride with me.
> 
> The eclipse is next Monday, so if you’re in North America, I hope you all have time to go outside on Monday morning and catch the most awesome sky show!
> 
> Thank you all for reading.


End file.
